Joel Garfinkle's Blog

PLEASE UPDATE THE RSS FEED

The RSS feed URL you're currently using https://follow.it/career-advancement-blog will stop working shortly. Please add /rss at the and of the URL, so that the URL will be https://follow.it/career-advancement-blog/rss

4 Tips for Improving Work/Life Balance

“We think, mistakenly, that success is the result of the amount of time we put in at work, instead of the quality of time we put in.” ~ Arianna Huffington

A hectic work schedule, increased responsibility, new technology, and the need to read and respond to a daily deluge of email and voicemail place huge demands on your work life. With all this pressure, you might feel as if your work is a prison that you can never escape. More and more keeps coming at you. Your family also needs and demands your attention—and you don’t want to miss out on extracurricular activities, helping the kids with homework, and family time. How can you manage to do it all—without burning out?

In many workplaces, employees receive assignments from multiple people. You may find yourself pulled in various directions without understanding how to cope with the expectations of multiple people. Work/life balance might seem unattainable.

According to the World Happiness Report, work/life balance plays a central role in happiness. In other words, if you’re always stressed and rushed, it’s hard to feel truly happy. And yet the U.S. ranks 30 out of 38 nations in terms of work/life balance, according to a recent study by Family Living Today and NowSourcing.

Over a five-year span, one of my clients in the biotechnology field kept moving up through the ranks, from manager to senior manager to VP. His responsibilities and the number of decisions he had to make drastically increased. While he needed to make decisions quickly, it became more and more difficult to make the best ones. To thrive in this role, he needed to develop new skills for dealing with a never-ending stream of demands. He had to determine his most important priorities, along with when to say yes and when to say no. After he took the time to pinpoint his big-picture priorities and outline the stepping stones toward those goals, he grew confident in making bold decisions that would help the company achieve its objectives.

Whether you’ve been promoted or are just trying to cope with the relentless pressures of the modern work environment, learning new ways to handle it all will help you achieve that important balance. You need to begin with yourself, changing the way you think about the demands placed on you. Below are four work-life balance tips that will help you to follow through on what’s most important while not overloading yourself.

4 Tips for Balancing Work and Life1.Set realistic goals.

Do you set lofty goals in the belief that even if you don’t meet them, you’ll still achieve impressive results? That sets you up to feel perpetually behind and always strapped for time. Reevaluate your goals, objectives, and timeframe, making them more realistic where needed. By doing so, you’ll make your workload more manageable. Determine for yourself how you’ll measure your success, too—that way, you’re not always trying to measure yourself by others’ standards (and obsessing about what those standards might be).

2. Underpromise and overdeliver.

You’ll feel great when you send that report to your boss two days early rather than struggling to get it in by deadline. Underpromising is a key secret of those employees who always seem to finish their work on time, without struggling. If you have trouble evaluating the true amount of time a project will require, try this strategy: Take the amount of time you were tempted to promise, then add on one-third of that time to give yourself the full span of time that you need. You’ll find balance in your working life as you use this tip, and that will give you more time to relax with your family!

3. Maintain a strong support network.

Communicating often with family and close friends about your priorities—and how much you value them—will help them understand your level of availability. They’ll continue supporting you when you consistently find small ways to show that you care, like making time for a lunch date with an old friend. In turn, you’ll reap the benefits of having strong social connections even when you have limited spare time.

4. Decide on family priorities.

Talk with your family to figure out which events and parts of your daily routine should be your highest priority as family time. Do you want to make sure to eat dinner together every day, always read the kids a bedtime story, or have a date with your partner once a week? Establishing routines gives everyone family time that they can count on, showing you that you can always depend on each other.

These tips for reaching work-life balance are a real game-changer, and you’ll soon find yourself with more energy and less overwhelm. Communicate with your boss—or bosses—to let them know that you’re working to improve your work/life balance. Emphasize that you feel your efforts will make you a more effective and productive employee by allowing you to better focus and prioritize. If they’re wise, they’ll support you in this endeavor—and encourage others to do the same!

Struggling to create work-life balance? Joel can help you to get where you want to go in your career while improving your quality of life. Contact him today to get the ball rolling!

The post 4 Tips for Improving Work/Life Balance first appeared on Career Advancement Blog.

Stress Reduction Techniques

 

“Being in control of your life and having realistic expectations about your day-to-day challenges are the keys to stress management, which is perhaps the most important ingredient to living a happy, healthy and rewarding life.”
~Marilu Henner

Client Elias asks: I feel like my work performance is being compromised by stress. And carrying all that stress is exhausting—sooner or later, I feel like I’m just going to collapse. How can I start dealing with it?

Coach Joel answers: Elias, you’re not alone—work is a major cause of stress for 65% of Americans, according to the American Psychological Association (APA). And none of us should settle for feeling stressed at work all the time. A little surge of stress can be good—the kind that gets you in gear to meet a deadline—but chronic stress is debilitating.

Workplace stress can come from small, repeated annoyances, or it can stem from major issues with your job role or organizational culture. Many of us suffer from “rush syndrome,” the fear of slowing down. Sometimes we don’t even realize how stressed we’ve been until we learn to relax. These 10 stress reduction techniques will help you start feeling like the superstar you are.

Keep a Journal

Keep a journal for a couple of weeks to track your stress, suggests the APA. Simply acknowledging your stress and affirming you’re going to address it feels good, and it’s a first step to making changes.

Get Organized

Clutter leads to stress, because we know it’s something that needs to be dealt with. It’s like seeing little tasks piled up in front of you—it creates a sense of overwhelm. Take a little time to clear out that clutter, and you’ll find your mind is clearer as well.

Practice Good Posture

Sitting up straight not only projects confidence, but gives you more confidence as well, according to Time. If you get into a crouched-down pose, it will make you more fearful and stressed, because your mind is responding to your body. These techniques for reducing stress can help improve your posture and make your body feel better, which brings more stress-reducing benefits.

Engage in Deep Breathing

According to Sharon Melnick in Success Under Stress, by regulating your breath, you can break unconscious emotional patterns that persist through short, stressed breathing. Set an intention to consciously take several deep breaths at different points throughout the day, ideally before you feel extreme stress coming on.

Prepare for the Next Day

Fretting over what you need to do the next day, or how a meeting will go, creates a lot of unnecessary stress. Instead, at the end of each workday, create a plan for what you’ll do the next day. Prepare thoughts you want to share at the meeting, along with a manageable “to do” list. This will help you avoid procrastinating and get high-priority tasks done on schedule.

Create Work/Life Boundaries

If you’re checking email at night, you’re probably carrying extra stress around. Set clear work/life boundaries for yourself, and stick to them, the APA advises.

Get Active

If you’re not getting regular exercise, make that a daily part of your routine. Even if you work out in the evening, add some physical activity to your workday, as active breaks can lower stress. Take a walk during your lunch break, for example.

Check the Self-Criticism

Write down your greatest accomplishments and words of appreciation from others on notecards that you can keep tucked in your desk or posted on your wall. When you feel self-criticism coming on, check this self-defeating behavior by reminding yourself of those moments. This will help you stay positive as you work to overcome your inevitable challenges.

Laugh More

Watch a silly video on your break, or share a story about something funny your kid did. Breaking the tension with laughter will put you in a better emotional state.

Take Charge of Your Career

Lack of job satisfaction, few opportunities to advance or grow, and unclear performance expectations are major causes of workplace stress, says the APA. If these things are contributing to your stress, make a career plan now. Talk to your boss to enlist support, letting her know you want to grow with the organization.

Furthermore, try not to stress about your work stress. You’re not failing if you don’t address it all at once—implementing coping strategies takes time, as Martha Davis says in The Relaxation and Stress Reduction Workbook. Be patient with yourself as you begin using these techniques for stress reduction, knowing no one gets it all right all at once.

Is stress holding you back at work? Contact leadership coach Joel Garfinkle for more support in reducing stress and changing your life, and read his book Time Management Mastery for more advice on reducing rush syndrome and enjoying work-life balance.

The post Stress Reduction Techniques first appeared on Career Advancement Blog.

6 of the Most In-Demand Skills for the Future Workplace

“Change equals self-improvement. Push yourself to places you haven’t been before.” – Pat Summitt

The future workplace will require its leaders to have a particular skillset that allows them to be adaptable and effective within a climate of change. Recently, I shared insights on the most in-demand skills for the future that the leaders of tomorrow’s workforce need to develop.

Several key competencies will aid in the development of all of those skills:

The ability to think outside of the box, maintaining a healthy curiosity about how to best respond to change.An aptitude for thriving in ambiguity and remaining agile, ready to try new ideas, since change will continuously be occurring.A willingness to embrace the digital realm and continuously update your skills.

Now, here are some strategies for developing the mix of skills that will prove essential to success in the coming years.

1. Highly specialized knowledge.

Having a high level of specialized knowledge in a niche area will help you stay valuable and marketable. To develop this knowledge, attend industry conferences, networking with experts you admire. Get their contact info and share ideas. Attend seminars and panel discussions on cutting-edge developments in the field, and ask the experts how you can hone your skills to prepare for future transitions and which skills and knowledge they believe will be most marketable in the future. Leverage the resources they point you toward to continue learning.

Find mentors who can encourage your growth and help guide your direction, too. Take classes, and read books and articles by leading experts. Then, consider positioning yourself as a thought leader in that area by sharing your insights and predictions through blog posts, clearly demonstrating what you can bring to the table as an expert and strategist.

2. Exceptional emotional intelligence.

In the future, the most in-demand skills will include the ability to relate to others well. You can develop your emotional intelligence by frequently considering what leads your coworkers, clients, leaders, and direct reports to act in certain ways. Pause to consider how they might feel about a situation or decision, given their facial expressions, body language, tone of voice, and past reactions. Making yourself more approachable to others will also give you more input about how they’re feeling. Here are a few ways to do that:

Use open body language, make eye contact, and smile.Invite them to share their feelings with you.Practice active listening.

Do those things, and you’ll soon have a stronger grasp of how others feel at any given time—and they’ll be more likely to confide in you in the future. As a result, you’ll grow strong working relationships that enhance your ability to lead people.

Develop techniques for managing your own emotions, too. Get your stress under control in ways such as the following:

Talk through challenges with a trusted mentor instead of bottling up your anxiety.Keep a journal of how you navigate difficult projects and other challenges, so that in moments of stress, you can easily remember examples of how you’ve dealt with similar situations.Practice a meditation technique or another stress-relieving exercise that helps you feel more grounded and capable.Maintain a healthy diet, exercise routine, and sleep schedule for optimal mental clarity as well as physical health.3. Ability to coach others.

To begin developing your coaching skills, identify the leaders you most admire—whether they’re in your organization or outside of it. Make a list of the ones who have most strongly impacted your life. Then, list the traits each leader embodies beneath their name. Now, reach out to the top five leaders you most admire and ask them for advice on developing those traits. Meet with them for coffee or lunch, if possible, or have a phone conversation if they’re far away. Hopefully, you’ll end up with several mentors who can help guide your development as a leader and coach for your own employees.

4. Ability to work collaboratively.

Practice working collaboratively with other key players across functions. For example, if you’re an accountant, take part in meetings on marketing strategy, product development, or personnel management where you can provide insight from a financial perspective. Explain hard data in a way that everyone can understand in order to inform the group’s decisions. There’s no better way to show your colleagues and superiors the value you’ll continue to bring than by demonstrating it now, stepping into the role you predict you’ll be filling several years down the road.

5. Ingenuity.

The ability to generate creative solutions will help you navigate the waters of change, solving new kinds of problems with well-designed plans, says Clar Rosso, Vice President of Member Learning and Competency at the American Institute of CPAs. Unleashing your ingenuity means giving yourself time to reflect, brainstorm, and design new ideas. Spend time thinking about creative ideas for maximizing the success of your organization, building reflection time into your schedule on a weekly basis. Reflection time deserves to be a key priority, since the most valuable ideas tend to arise from the times when we pause to simply think, rather than constantly rushing from one task to the next. Then, take calculated risks by testing your ideas out after gaining buy-in. You’ll build both your confidence and reputation in the process.

6. Big-picture thinking.

Engage in big-picture thinking by developing an in-depth understanding of how every department or function contributes to the success of your organization. Refresh your knowledge of your company’s vision and mission, and practice articulating them. Whenever you face a strategic decision, consider whether it supports the vision and mission. These practices will help you become a big-picture thinker who helps others think this way as well.

As you cultivate the leadership skills that will be most in-demand in the future, you might see opportunities opening up that you never could have predicted. Keep learning and growing, and you’ll lead the way through the transitions to come!

Joel can help your organization navigate the coming changes with grace and skill. Contact him to discuss how he can help your current and future leaders build a top-tier skill set.

The post 6 of the Most In-Demand Skills for the Future Workplace first appeared on Career Advancement Blog.

5 Tips for Bragging at Work—without Sounding Like You’re Bragging

“If you are going to change the world, it will be from leveraging your strengths.” – Kyle Parton

Do you want to make your strengths more widely known, but worry about being seen as a braggart? You’re not alone—that’s a common fear among employees in most workplaces. Many people feel their coworkers and company leadership don’t know about their core strengths, yet they’re afraid to speak up about them, lest others perceive them as boasting.

Bragging about yourself doesn’t only show others what you can do (when done tactfully). Bragging can also convince you that you’re capable of tackling more challenging tasks and projects. It builds your personal morale, giving you the momentum to keep moving forward by taking on exciting new endeavors at work.

Bragging about yourself can give you the same types of good feelings as great food or money, an article in The New York Times explains. It’s like a great reward for a job well done.

Researchers found that sharing our thoughts with others feels rewarding in itself, the article asserts—and when those thoughts are about our own accomplishments and value, the positive feelings we experience tend to skyrocket.

Sharing these thoughts gives you a burst of motivation, helping you feel more capable and confident—which affirms that you can tackle the next items on your to-do list, Psychology Today explains. That’s a fantastic reason for bragging at work on a regular basis.

Of course, you don’t want to become known for boasting. Rather, you can brag in more subtle ways that will feel and sound completely normal.

Five tips for bragging tactfully1. Focus on the big accomplishments.

You don’t want to be the person who’s always flooding your social media with boasts about your everyday accomplishments. Instead, share your most important achievements from time to time—whether it’s a specific outcome or a realization that you’ve developed a new skill. That will ensure those big moments will stand out—and even if you do sound like you’re bragging outright about something really huge in a moment of surprise and elation, people will probably understand.

2. Don’t try to cloak your words in false modesty.

In other words, don’t make a statement about your accomplishments and then act as though you’re trying to downplay it behind a weakness or complaint. That’s called “humblebragging,” as an article in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology says, and people can usually see right through it. It feels contrived—because it is! Since it comes across as insincere, it usually backfires, the authors explain.

3. Share gratitude.

Thank the people who helped you to achieve your goal or objective, sharing the credit where it’s due. Describe what each person did to carry the project through—including yourself. Speak to each team member’s distinct strengths that allowed you to work together effectively, and share your appreciation for the opportunity to work as a team. You’ll be underscoring your skill in managing the team without directly talking about it—plus, people will look forward to working with you again in the future.

4. Let your enthusiasm about the effort it took shine through.

Instead of just focusing on the outcome, let people see how excited you are to be involved in the work you’re doing. Describe the process, showing how you reached your goal. By telling that story, you’ll be subtly bragging about all the effort and skill you put in to achieve that result. You’ll also be illustrating your strengths more vividly when you tell a story about how you reached a goal, making your words more memorable to others. They’ll have a deeper understanding of the skill and effort the project took when they understand the challenges you overcame in the process.

5. Offer to help someone.

Looking to make your strengths more widely known? Offer a helping hand when someone needs assistance you’re especially equipped to provide. Explain what you can do to help with your coworker’s project or your boss’s efforts. You’ll be subtly bragging by stating your strengths, but no one will perceive it as boasting. If you recently took a seminar that helped you develop a new area of knowledge, start putting it to use as soon as possible by assisting others in these ways.

Like point one says, be careful not to brag all the time. Too much bragging can easily lead to self-sabotage, so Psychology Today recommends strategic bragging. Work to speak about your strengths in specific areas of expertise, which will give others useful information about whom to turn to with questions about those topics. In other words, if bragging serves a dual purpose—sharing useful info while bolstering your self-confidence—you’re less likely to be seen as a braggart.

Need more strategies for self-promotion? Contact him for personalized advice that will help you take the next steps in your career. He has decades of experience in helping people expand their influence and advance into higher-level positions.

The post 5 Tips for Bragging at Work—without Sounding Like You’re Bragging first appeared on Career Advancement Blog.

How to Become Your Boss’s Favorite Employee

“If you want to be happy, set a goal that commands your thoughts, liberates your energy, and inspires your hopes.” – Andrew Carnegie

Maybe you see yourself as a consistent overachiever—someone who always gets the job done well and on time—but you still have the sneaking suspicion that you’re not one of the boss’s favorite employees. Perhaps one of your coworkers has a much stronger rapport with your boss, even though you always go above and beyond expectations. Your coworker probably does each of these three things extremely well:

Keeping your boss informed about her key accomplishments and their results for the organization.Striving to be a top performer, not only doing what is expected but taking on higher-level projects and responsibilities whenever possible.Proactively building relationships with leaders across the organization.

As a result, your coworker gets noticed by company leaders—not only your boss, but other leaders as well, like your boss’s boss.

Becoming the favorite employee at work requires some political maneuvering—think of it as strategic relationship building. The favorites know how to work the system in their favor, which ultimately means building a strong support base throughout all corners of the organization. Here are some tips for doing just that.

Learn the 7 Steps to Become Your Boss’s Favorite Employee1. Keep your boss informed about what you accomplish on a weekly and monthly basis.

State specific, concrete project outcomes, illustrating what your successes mean for the company.

2. Work to cultivate relationships with your boss’s boss and executives as well.

Share your results with them, too—when your boss sees you getting praise from superiors and building relationships with executives, his confidence in you will grow.

3. Volunteer for more challenging projects that help you meet the personal goals you’ve set.

Taking on higher-profile projects will bring you closer to the job of your dreams. You’ll never feel fully ready for a new role or more difficult project; there’s a point where you just need to dive in and learn by doing, supported by the mentors you’ve cultivated. Take risks, stepping outside of your comfort zone and proposing innovative ideas that you feel could benefit the company. Hands-on experience is the only way to truly enhance your capabilities, and testing a new idea is the only way to determine whether it will work.

4. Tell your boss about your career aspirations and map out a plan toward achieving your goals.

Include clear objectives and benchmarks of success. Your boss will probably be impressed by your efforts and excited to support you.

5. Help your boss enhance her reputation.

Consider how you could volunteer to assist your boss (or higher-level leaders) in valuable ways that get their attention. Help them navigate a roadblock in a high-stakes project or overcome a problem that no one else has figured out how to solve. When you help your boss shine in front of her boss, you’ll quickly move to the top of her list of favorite employees.

6. Learn to lead others from the level you’re currently at.

As you assume the role of a leader, your boss will see you as one. Seize upon opportunities to coach and mentor others who seek to enhance their skillset. Propose and implement a peer-coaching program that pairs up people who can mentor each other through the development of particular skills. Show your boss that you have the qualities of a dynamic leader who helps people maximize their potential, and he’ll treat you like one.

7. Get to know people across the company, in a variety of functions, and welcome opportunities to collaborate with them.

Learn what they do, and show you appreciate their contributions. True leaders build a rapport with everyone and show they understand the value they bring. Your boss will take notice of your efforts to do so.

As you do these things, you’ll build a great deal of momentum in your career, which will continue propelling you forward. As your visibility and influence increase, you’ll experience a positive feedback loop occurring. This means the energy you initially invested in becoming a favorite employee will continue growing your reputation and influence.

Why? Influential people will advocate for you, speaking up on your behalf at meetings of senior executives. Because you’ve become your boss’s favorite, she’ll go to bat for you with other leaders, giving you her highest recommendation. In decision-making meetings, leaders will all know your name and key accomplishments, since you’ll always have advocates at the table. And because leaders see your potential, you’ll have consistent mentoring from those who are most effective in their roles, helping you develop the executive presence that will allow you to rise through the ranks. Coworkers and direct reports will have tremendous respect for you, enhancing your ability to lead them. In turn, your motivation and morale will soar.

Take these steps, and you’ll quickly become one of your boss’s favorite employees. As a result, you’ll be gearing up for career advancement and growing the confidence to handle exciting new responsibilities that will give you more satisfaction and fulfillment in your role.

Joel provides the one-on-one coaching that gives people the tools and feedback they need to make great strides in their career. Contact him to find out more about how he can help you to hone in on the areas where you need to grow, propelling your career forward.

The post How to Become Your Boss’s Favorite Employee first appeared on Career Advancement Blog.

Build Strong Working Relationships with Executives at Work

“Personal relationships are the fertile soil from which all advancement, all success, all achievement in real life grows.” – Ben Stein

Getting to know the key executives in your company will propel your career forward. Those influential leaders need to know who you are, what you do, and the value you bring. When they understand how much you contribute and truly like and believe in you, they will want to see you succeed. Thus, focus on working to build strong relationships with the people who hold the most influence over your career.

Many employees don’t work to grow these relationships. You may notice many of your coworkers keeping to themselves rather than reaching out to organizational leaders when the opportunity presents. When they run into an executive in the hallway, they avert their eyes. If they see them in the elevator, they nod a greeting and then look at their phone rather than striking up a conversation.

Why is that? My clients have shared these reasons for not building relationships with executives:

Not having the time.
Building relationships requires an investment of time, and employees are already struggling to keep up with the demands of their jobs. The idea of making time to do something that isn’t essential to their role can seem far-fetched at best.Not wanting to interrupt them or take up their time.
Knowing that executives are busy people, employees don’t want to distract them from their important work. They don’t want to appear self-centered by taking their focus away from their job.The executives work in a different department.
Employees may not see the value of connecting with leaders outside of their own business unit. They might have an easier time connecting with the ones they work with more closely, while not prioritizing building relationships with those who work in other functions.

A lot of this stems from a mentality of time scarcity. Employees fear the time investment it would take—on both their part and that of the leaders—to build these relationships. However, getting ahead in your career means strategically prioritizing how you use your time. You need to set higher-order priorities so that “urgent” daily requests don’t take over your schedule. One of those high-level priorities should be connecting with high-level leaders. Having their support will jumpstart your career success and even help you become more effective in your current role. When you build strong working relationships with senior leaders, you’ll grow your influence, making you more effective at your job.

At the same time, when executives know the up-and-coming leaders in their company, they can develop their talent effectively and plan for succession. Company leaders know the importance of investing time and money in this priority—so rather than worrying about wasting their time, think about how you’re saving them time by making it easier for them to connect with you and guide your progress. Likewise, sharing the results of your project isn’t wasting their time—it’s giving them valuable information that they can use in decision-making. That means—you guessed it—it’s actually saving them time as well.

Moreover, building these relationships doesn’t require a massive time commitment. Chatting with an executive as you walk down the hallway, sending a report on your team’s progress, asking your boss to introduce you to a key leader after a meeting, or going to lunch with a high-level leader won’t sap hours of anyone’s time. It may simply feel like it will take more time because of the time spent feeling anxious about these interactions. Once you start reaching out to influential executives, though, you’ll realize they’re just people who want you to succeed—and these interactions will become a natural part of your routine. Learn to pitch your ideas to executives succinctly and persuasively to make the most of those moments.

Seek out relationships with executives throughout your company. Work to build strong relationships within your own department based on what you have in common, but branch out from there. Ask for introductions from the leaders you already know well. Having a network of cross-functional relationships will vastly expand your influence and ability to get things done. You’ll have allies in positions of power throughout the organization, rather than just in your own silo, giving you far more buy-in for your ideas and initiatives. You can also leverage these relationships by asking for input and advice from those outside your function, which will help you to make more strategic decisions.

In short, you can’t afford not to start building strong relationships with executives across your organization. As you do so, you’ll achieve more and gain more recognition in your current role, priming you for advancement—and ensuring that key leaders already know what you can accomplish.

Joel will help you make a plan for expanding your influence throughout your workplace. Contact him to get the ball rolling today!

The post Build Strong Working Relationships with Executives at Work first appeared on Career Advancement Blog.

The 5 Most Important and Critical Skills for Jobs of the Future

“Personal development is the belief that you are worth the effort, time and energy needed to develop yourself.” – Denis Waitley

According to the World Economic Forum, five years from now, over one-third of the skills that are important on the job today will have become irrelevant. That means some of your employees could find their jobs being phased out in the coming years.

Through active leadership, you can support your direct reports through these transitions. If you’ve realized that one of your employees has a job that will become obsolete in the foreseeable future, it’s time to take action. You need to proactively help him develop a strategy for remaining marketable and valuable, helping him define a viable pathway for his career. Recently I shared insights on which skills will be most critical for jobs of the future. By helping your employees develop those skills, you’ll help open new opportunities for them in the years to come.

Embarking on a new career pathway takes courage, especially if it’s substantially different from what this individual once envisioned for himself. However, he can probably still use many of the same key competencies that help him excel in his current role—he just may need to use them in different ways. Reassure your employee that while his job may be phased out, talent never will.

1. Assess the key skills to develop.

Take a skills inventory. Sit down with the employee and list all of the skills she uses on the job. Then, circle the ones that won’t be necessary in the coming years (or that will be dramatically less critical). Underline the skills that will remain valuable.

Then, determine which of the skills in both groups can be upgraded, and what types of updates need to be made. Make a list of these skills. Then, detail the specific upgrades your employee needs to make for each one.

Now, help your employee to identify a niche area of focus, based on the skillset she aims to develop. Your employee will become more valuable when she can clearly define her niche area of skill and expertise.

2. Make introductions.

Introduce your employee to people who can provide direction, guidance, and tips for enhancing his skillset. They might be people in your company, such as leaders in other departments or your boss’s boss. You can also help your employee to network with other leaders outside of your organization, such as a colleague from another company or peers from an industry association. If your company will not be able to keep the employee on its staff, make introductions to leaders at other organizations that could benefit from his skillset.

3. Promote self-confidence and leadership ability.

Help your employee develop the confident, assertive demeanor that will prepare him to step into a new type of position—including a managerial role. If the technical skills she used on the job are being phased out, cultivating her leadership potential and belief in herself will make her an asset to the organization at a higher level in the future. These critical job skills will help her to not only retain a position with your company, but to advance through the ranks. Here are a few ways you can do that:

Give her the opportunity to mentor others. Determine several useful skills that she has mastered, then pair her with another employee who wants to develop them. The other employee doesn’t necessarily need to be less experienced—this is a great opportunity for peer-mentoring, in which two employees mentor each other in skills they want to develop.Ask her to deliver presentations in meetings. Help your employee to hone her confidence and ability to speak in front of groups by presenting on topics she knows a lot about. For instance, she could deliver a report-back on your team’s recent project or give a mini workshop on a topic you want everyone to learn about.4. Foster collaboration.

Talk with managers in other departments about how to enhance your employees’ ability to collaborate on multidisciplinary teams. Make cross-functional team-building a core priority, assembling task forces where employees from divergent functions can act as advisors to one another. This will help them get in the mindset of thinking creatively about how they can collaborate together, and looking for opportunities to serve as advisors to colleagues from other departments. By doing so, they’ll remain relevant and effective throughout the coming transitions.

If you supervise other managers, encourage them to have these conversations with their employees so everyone in your organization maintains a relevant and valuable skillset.

5. Provide learning resources.

Identify trade associations that publish valuable research and hold conferences in your employee’s field (or the field he wants to transition into). Support his growth by covering the costs of conference attendance, if possible. Also point him toward certification courses that can expand his skillset, covering these expenses if that is feasible for your organization.

As you take these steps, your employee will develop the critical skill set for jobs of the future, and exciting new doors will open. Most importantly, check on your employee’s progress frequently and act as a supportive coach whom he can turn to with any questions. You’ll soon see your employee blossom as a leader, ensuring he’ll remain an asset to your organization for years to come.

Joel can help each member of your team to upgrade their skill set so they’ll remain a valuable asset to your company. Contact him to learn how to get started today.

The post The 5 Most Important and Critical Skills for Jobs of the Future first appeared on Career Advancement Blog.

How Can You Further Develop Your Talent? 7 Key Steps

“Before you become a leader, success is all about growing yourself. After you become a leader, success is about growing others.” – Jack Welch

Research has shown that as leaders rise up in the ranks, their proficiency in nurturing talent declines rather than increases.

Why?

Too often, they’re not promoted based on their managerial ability. They’re promoted because of the skills that allowed them to excel in their previous role—not in the role they’re about to step into. When that continuously happens, organizations aren’t maximizing the potential of their leaders—or getting the most out of their workforce as a whole. Leaders should always be working to develop new leaders, helping their employees develop the skillsets that will allow them to effectively manage others.

Other factors may also inhibit leaders from investing time in developing their employees’ leadership abilities. They might feel like they’re so busy juggling time-sensitive projects and deadlines that they don’t have time to focus on the development of new leaders. They’re tasked with achieving bottom-line results, and they don’t see talent development as a measurable goal.

The ability to develop people’s talent is one of the most vital qualities for high-level leaders. At the executive level, cultivating effective teams is perhaps the most essential role of a leader—meaning the complexity of managing people and nurturing their growth increases. They need to further their people’s growth not just as employees but as leaders. Thus, smart organizations create succession plans that include training and mentoring in how to support employees in their development.

First, identify which leaders need to start more effectively guiding their people’s development. Then, take action to help them grow as leaders rather than just bosses.

How can you develop your talent? Here are seven key steps to developing your organization’s leaders.

1. Schedule regular one-on-one sessions with them once a week. During these sessions, speak about your own experiences in helping others to grow.

2. Identify skilled leaders in high-level positions in your organization, and hold leadership seminars where they share best practices with a large group of managers. These sessions can include:

Stories that illustrate how they learned to put leadership skills into practice and the techniques they use regularly.Role-playing scenarios with peers that let them put the tools they’ve shared into practice.On-the-job simulations where a coach assumes the role of direct report and asks for guidance in a particular area.Q&A sessions where managers can ask for clarity on points of confusion.

3. Ask the seminar attendees to present workshops on what they’ve learned to their own teams, which will solidify their knowledge while enhancing their direct reports’ growth.

4. Prompt them to learn by doing, asking them to step into situations on the job where they can use their newfound knowledge. For instance, ask them to identify one area in which a direct report needs coaching, and to begin providing that guidance.

Encourage risk-taking as budding leaders grow their skills. Putting a new technique or idea into practice means taking a risk, but by trying new things, they’ll learn what works for them—and then perfect it.Give them plenty of mentorship as they navigate this new terrain, modeling the skills you want them to share with others. Through hands-on learning supported by the advice of a trusted coach, they’ll turn knowledge into skills.Prompt them to engage in peer mentoring, teaming up with another seminar attendee to jointly enhance their leadership skills by coaching one another. By talking through questions that arise on a weekly basis (or more frequently) and giving one another feedback on their progress, they’ll gain valuable coaching experience.

5. Connect each leader with a mentor, and give them opportunities to interact with multiple high-level leaders who can inspire their growth and share advice.

Encourage them to attend a conference and speak with five inspirational leaders, which can provide a great deal of motivation, wisdom, and helpful connections.Hold lunches where groups of budding leaders can meet potential mentors and talk with them informally, promoting relationship-building.

6. Ask leaders to connect their own direct reports with other leaders who can support their growth by providing valuable perspectives, such as people in other organizational functions.

7. Identify additional resources that can help develop your talented leaders Here are a few ideas:

Hold trainings by an outside professional, asking leaders to again take notes and present the key points to their direct reports.Develop presentations that can help leaders present ongoing workshops to their own teams. Include plenty of discussion prompts in each module, with the aim of sparking conversation and active discovery on the part of both leaders and their direct reports.Place a library of books on leadership in the break room.

As you develop your talent, you can grow a teaching culture within your organization. At all levels of the organization, leaders will continue striving to develop other leaders, seeing that ability as a hallmark of success. This emphasis on supporting others’ growth will bring countless benefits, promoting an engaged workforce, strong communication, and enhanced productivity throughout the workplace.

Joel is a master of helping people reach their full leadership potential. Contact him to learn how he can help you get more from your people by developing leaders at all levels of your organization.

The post How Can You Further Develop Your Talent? 7 Key Steps first appeared on Career Advancement Blog.

The Top 5 Qualities of a Great Leader

“Treat people as if they were what they ought to be, and you help them become what they are capable of being.” – Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

What’s the number one skill every leader needs to have? The ability to be a great coach to others, according to a 2018 Gallup survey. That allows them to get more from their people, helping them each to reach their highest potential and become leaders in turn.

Now, we’re going to delve into what makes a great leader. Work to model the top qualities of a leader, and you’ll see your whole team reach greater heights.

1. Trustworthiness.

To mentor people effectively, you need to create trust with them. Make sure they feel comfortable coming to you with questions and speaking to you about concerns or challenges they are facing. At the same time, you need to feel comfortable being direct with them about their performance rather than sugar-coating feedback. That straightforwardness will help them to trust your judgment and have trust in you as a leader. Give frequent and honest feedback in a supportive manner, and they’ll feel comfortable speaking with you about their progress.

2. Interest in people’s lives and wellbeing.

Learn about your employees’ lives. One of the most important qualities of a top leader is the ability to show people that you genuinely care about them. Make sure you are asking questions, listening, and remembering what is important to your employees. For example, know the names and ages of their children and ask how they’re doing from time to time. Learn about your employees’ important hobbies, showing your interest in what they do for fun outside of work. For instance, if an employee is training to run a marathon, ask how their practice is going. Tell them about your own hobbies in turn. Getting to know them as people, not just as workers or subordinates, helps you find common ground and build a strong rapport. In turn, they’ll have a more well-rounded picture of who you are.

3. Ability to develop talent.

Spend time coaching your people, focusing on their development. Take each one of your people on your team and evaluate them from 1–10 (10 being the highest rating) in two areas: (1) past performance and (2) future potential. Then, ask yourself what each of them needs to do to move the “future potential” number upward. By doing this, you’ll create a list of areas for growth and development to help them move to the next level.

Discuss these strengths and areas for growth in your one-on-one check-ins and performance reviews, describing the specific behaviors they could change and the ones they excel in. Describe what success in a given area for improvement would look like, and help them set priorities for their development. That way, they’ll have a clear picture of the steps they can take to improve.

4. A contagious enthusiasm for the company’s vision and mission.

Great managers have an uncanny ability to inspire their people by igniting a conviction in their company’s vision and mission, as Gallup points out in “Why Great Managers Are So Rare.” They know how to articulate the vision and mission so that everyone can understand them. Then, they show each employee how they play an integral role in fulfilling the core vision and mission. They can also articulate how improvements in specific areas will contribute more to the vision and mission. As a result, everyone feels motivated to give their all.

5. A commitment to accountability and fairness.

The best managers prioritize creating a culture of fairness, which means ensuring accountability. They take accountability for their own mistakes, encouraging others to do the same. In doing so, they allow others to see their process of considering what they could have done better and taking the necessary steps toward improvement. They don’t shy away from the tough conversations that lead to positive changes in behavior and company culture. As a result, people respect them and want to emulate their actions. Employees also value how they work to implement a culture of fairness that opens opportunities for everyone, regardless of their background.

Master the top qualities of great leaders described here, and you’ll stand out to the people who make decisions about promotions. When they discuss succession plans and who to appoint to positions with a higher degree of responsibility, you can bet your name will come up. And remember, you can lead from wherever you’re at—whether you’re in a high-level leadership position or not, start implementing these strategies today and see your career blossom.

Are you looking to take your leadership skills to the next level? Joel has helped hundreds of clients to step into their full leadership potential. Contact him to discuss how he can guide you to the next level of success.

The post The Top 5 Qualities of a Great Leader first appeared on Career Advancement Blog.