A post on the Harvard Business Review says that the work-life balance is a myth…! What do you think? Here’s why I think it is FAR from a myth.

John Beeson posted on HBR – about a subject I’ve written many times about on this blog – the Work-Life Balance. Beeson says that, nowadays, moments of relaxation and down-time are fleeting. Constant pressure means that it’s sink, or swim, and that every opportunity for a short, sharp bout of relaxation should be taken to power-up for the next round.

Say goodbye to the two-week vacation with the family. That’s history in most organizations. Instead, seek to find those activities that allow you to relax — even if only for 15 minutes a day.

- John Beeson

Don’t know about you, but I can’t relax in prescribed, regimented sessions. It’s counter-intuitive to the point.

The ‘Myth’ of Work-Life Balance….?

Perhaps John Beeson has a point. In many organizations, c-level execs just don’t have the luxury of 2-week vacations once a year. Most companies demand hard-graft and the ‘consequences of failure are punishing’. I have experienced this myself, and he is right – right when I look back at those organizations where non-stop, grueling demands were placed upon me and all at senior management level.

But, you know, this is only true in those kinds of organizations. Google is a great example. Google demands no less than its 100lbs of flesh. Their institutionalized employee meat-grinder is legendary.

This isn’t true for all organizations, though.

We sometimes forget, we DO have a choice where we work, even in these tough economic times. We don’t HAVE to take this ‘myth’ as a given, and take it on the chin.

Work-Life Balance Does Exist

A recent survey for Glassdoor.com reported that 54% of employees report good work-life balance, while 43% of employees wish they had better work-life balance.

Glassdoor.com also compiled a list of the 25 companies with the best balance of work and personal life. The top five for the best work-life balance are Nestle Purina Petcare, MITRE, SAS Institute, FactSet and United Space Alliance.

1. Nestlé Purina PetCare
2. MITRE
3. SAS Institute
4. FactSet
5. United Space Alliance
6. Slalom Consulting
7. Facebook
8. Morningstar
9. Susquehanna International Group
10. Colgate-Palmolive
11. Mentor Graphics
12. Autodesk
13. Sheetz
14. Agilent Technologies
15. Turner Broadcasting
16. Dupont
17. Southwest Airlines
18. General Mills
19. Biogen Idec
20. Scottrade
21. Chevron
22. Synopsys
23. MTV Networks
24. Intuit
25. National Instruments

Many of these organizations are household names. I don’t think work-life balance is a myth, but just a consequences of choosing a demanding employer.

We CAN choose not to work like this. And who says we will be less successful for it?

So ask yourself, are you truly stuck in a job that’s more like a sweat-shop, or are you really choosing to stay in this job? Are you forgetting that you have a choice where you work?

©2012 SimonStapleton.com. All Rights Reserved.

You know the feeling when you wake up annoyed before the work day begins…

In most cases, you’re only excited about the end of the day because you hate your job. Maybe it’s time to consider a career, but you do not have the educational requirements to pursue higher paying positions. It’s a reality now, but you can make the choice to change for the future.

Many companies now require applicants to hold at least an Associates degree in any field with experience. If you have over 10 years in sales and no degree, consider pursuing a Business Administration or Information Technology degree to get started. The more technical your degree, the greater amount of critical thinking skills you’ll develop for your new career.

1. You’ve reached your breaking point of disappointment

Are you tired of applying for low paying jobs? You’re reaching a new point of disappointment because of the knowledge-based workforce. Many people are not even working in their respective fields, but they are receiving a considerable amount of income for finishing college and learning how to apply new skills in the workplace.

2. Your boss calls you out for lacking a college degree

According to the “Education pays..” survey by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, individuals with only a high school diploma earn approximately $626 per week compared to $767 of an Associates degree worker. If you consider these wages for a total year, the person with the Associates degree will earn about $7,300 more than the high school graduate.

The extra $7,300 can help create opportunities for your family, reduce debt and improve your lifestyle (if you’re unhappy with it). Persons with college degrees usually earn a higher pay which relieves some of the stress surrounding overworking, underpayment and extensive worry about the next paycheck.

3. You think it’s time to change

You think it’s time to make a change, and you know what changes are needed. Many people have fears of returning to college because they of financial aid, lack of study skills or time management. You can get an education and take care of home by preparing for the transition by asking friends, family, and colleagues to help you. You hate going to work because your bosses stress you out, barely pay good wages to cover bills and the job is impacting your health.

Get to the bottom of your fears

You can only make a choice if you are prepared to handle the consequences. Educational institutions welcome working adults and provide assistance to help. You may even receive additional help including child care assistance, tutoring, or flex schedule opportunities at your current job. Ask your employer about tuition reimbursement programs (if available). If you identify each problem you think you may have, find the solutions to make the right choices.

Adult learning is a promising step in your career. No matter how long you’ve worked in the workforce, a combination of education and experience will boost your position with the right employer. In most cases, you will have to plan a way to get your new life under control with family, school, and work; take your time and everything will work out.

©2012 SimonStapleton.com. All Rights Reserved.

Want to make a great impression at your next interview? You only have 15 seconds to do it…

We have only a brief time to make a great impression at an interview. Fifteen seconds – that’s all. That’s according to research conducted by Oregon State University.

A study showed that an observer could predict whether or not the interviewee would be offered the job just from watching just the first 15 seconds of an interview – that’s the handshake, the greeting… and very little else. Those first few seconds determine whether we will be offered the job, or not.

Early mankind and its ancestors had to decide 3 things from an encounter with another creature:

1. Can I Eat it?
2. Can I Have Sex With It?
3. Can I Be Killed By It?

First impressions were (and still are) a survival instinct. And through social development, we still employ it. Our assessment of new people is much more sophisticated and extends to the point employers ask, on meeting a candidate: Do I Like This Person? Can I Work With This Person? Is This Person Trustworthy? Will This Person Be A Good Ambassador For My Organization? All these things questions are assessed and concluded within seconds.

“First impressions are the fundamental drivers of our relationships [..] In a sense, it’s a little like the principle of chaos theory, where the initial conditions can have a profound impact on the eventual outcome. A first impression is your initial condition for analysing another human being.” – Professor Frank Bernieri of Oregon State University

The Factors of the First Impression

What makes up the ‘First Impression’? You already know, but perhaps don’t know that you do. Because you assess them every time you meet someone. In an interview, there are a handful of factors that form the First Impression.

• Your appearance: Are you neat and tidy? Do you have good personal hygiene? Are you attractive? Are you considerate of your appearance?
• Your smile: A smile is crucially important and should appear natural
• Your handshake: A firm handshake is essential
• Your greeting: Make sure you use the other person’s name
• Your location: Sit only if asked to, or often your interviewers have

Your Appearance

• I advise wearing simple, clean and well-ironed clothes – e.g. a suit
• Wear solid, neutral colors. If your suit has stripes, make them be think ‘chalk’ stripes
• Wear a white shirt, or one close to white
• For pete’s sake, make sure the colors are coordinated
• Don’t wear bulky jewellery

Your Smile

• Don’t enter the interview room already beaming a smile. This looks phony. Instead, take a moment to glance around the room at the people present, and then smile at who you think is the person in charge (they’re normally in the center)
• Make it a full, but relaxed smile
• Your mouth should be a little open – don’t be tight lipped
• Use your eyes in the smile too – they should sparkle and be fully open

Your Handshake

• A strong, firm handshake is what you should aim for
• And when I say aim, try to make sure both hands in full contact and the clench extends to each of your thumbs
• Don’t clench too hard – broken fingers are not a good start
• Don’t shake too ferociously too
• Make sure your hands are dry and grease free
• Maintain eye contact at all times

Your Greeting

• Say something like ‘Nice to meet you, Jane’ or something to that effect
• If you’re ever asked ‘How Do You Do?’ (common in my native UK) – the CORRECT answer is ‘How Do You Do?’, too

Your Location

• Your most likely to be sat during the interview – sit only when asked to, or once everyone else has sat down
• If offered a choice of a number of chairs, choose the one most central in aspect to your interviewer or interview panel
• Don’t sit in a sofa or soft chair – this will make you slouch
• Sit with a straight back
• Rest your arms on your knees or legs
• Don’t sit cross-legged
• Don’t sit with your arms crossed
• Don’t fidget or tap your foot
• Don’t dump your bag or briefcase on the table in front of you

All of these factors will be assessed within those first few moments. Your actions and appearance are what are used to assess them. Don’t bungle any of them, and you’re well on your way to making a great first impression and landing that job!

Become an Expert at the First Impression

I recommend this book if you’re SERIOUS about making that First Impression perfect: First Impressions: What You Don’t Know About How Others See You by DeMarais and White.

This book shows how your body language affects peoples view of you, and how they affect your conversation. It even demonstrates how sex appeal has a bearing on it. Each chapter has a checklist that you can fill out to see what areas you may require development in. The methods are simple and sensible. You will find this a constant reference! Buy First Impressions: What You Don’t Know About How Others See You today!

©2012 SimonStapleton.com. All Rights Reserved.

In days of old, managers were the king-pins of their domains and were to be obeyed without question. Not so today. Managers must understand their employees to build an efficient and effective working environment.

If you’ve read Charles Dickens’s A Christmas Carol, then you’ll know how Ebenezer Scrooge ruled with an iron-fist and commanded his staff to comply to his every word without question. It seems a ridiculous management style, now, but (in fact) in wasn’t that far away from the norm back in the early 19th century. Managers (thankfully) can’t behave like that now, so management style has shifted over the decades to be based on relationships, persuasion and collaboration.

A strong relationship between manager and employee means that trust and respect forms and grows. Not just that. When they understand each other, they capitalize on each other’s strengths, and make allowances for each other’s weaknesses. They’re symbiotic relationships.

Managers employ a number of techniques for getting to know their employees. And from my own experience, it requires a variety of tactics:

Getting to Know Their Jobs, Career Aspirations and Work Style

Most new managers take time to get to know the division of labor within their team, and how the labor is performed, using one-on-one meetings. Armed with resumes or other documentation, a manager has a great opportunity to get the lay of the land and discover who is doing what and how.

Alison Green‘s blog post what should a new manager ask to get to know employees better? offers a great list of questions for doing this. Here’s some of them:

• What do you see as the main goals of your role?
• What are the most important things for you to achieve this year?
• Are you on track to doing that? Are there milestones to meet on the way? What things are you worried might get in the way?
• What do you like the most about your job? The least?
• What would help you do your job better?
• Is there anything I should know about how you like to work?

I find it also helpful to ask questions that discover how employees see their work in relation to their colleagues. For example:

• What’s the most important thing you need to achieve as a team this year?
• How does doing X help John do Y?
• If you didn’t do X, what would happen when Mary did Z?

Getting to Know Each Other’s Personalities

We only really get to know about how someone ticks is when we have seen them in a variety of situations. This is why team-building exercises became popular. But you don’t need to go on an organized event to do it. I’ve used quite simple techniques to great effect. I like to take my team bowling. It puts people in a competitive situation, and it’s also a good way of discovering how people react to wearing the crazy shoes and performing the strange bowling techniques. I certainly root out the competitors, the vain, the show-offs and the clowns! Here are more examples of things I’ve done before:

• Paintballing
• Mini karting
• Dining out
• Volunteer work
• Sailing

Getting to Know Each Other’s Families

The impact of work on family life is an important consideration for employees, and their employers. Families are the supportive framework underneath our employees. It’s important to create opportunities for our employees to bring their families together (whether individuals take them, or not). BBQs and family-days are a great way to create these opportunities. It’s fantastic to see all the kids play together, spouses to chat over a burger and a glass of something. It’s a wonderful way of discovering the real person away from the desk and the hubbub of work.

Do you have other ideas on how managers can get to know their employees? Please share them by leaving a comment.

©2012 SimonStapleton.com. All Rights Reserved.

We’re almost at the close of 2011, and it’s been quite a year. If you’re like me, then a good rest over the holidays is badly needed. But what next? 2012 can be a GREAT year for us, when we focus on productivity.

I’ve just read a post on the Harvard Business Review blog, Five Things You Should Stop Doing in 2012, and it shares some great tips on how to sharpen up our productivity.

My two favorites are stop doing work that’s not worth it and stop making things more complicated than they should be.

For most people, their annual performance appraisal is due over the coming weeks (is yours?) This is an ideal time to bring up issues connected to the above points.

Over time, some tasks we’re doing lose their effectiveness, because the world moves on, and technology speeds things up (or makes tasks redundant). Often, though, these tasks aren’t reviewed to ensure that they’re a good use of our time. These things might be stock-checks, or regular meetings… you’ll know what you do that isn’t effective.

Use your performance appraisal as a point to ask “should I REALLY be doing this any longer?”

This is a powerful question.

And ally this to the second point. Tasks we regularly perform can become unnecessarily complicated, because the process is inflexible. Such as filling out paperwork that nobody reads, or sending out letters that clog up the mail-room. When a task is ‘new’, our competence in it is low, so check-sums and balances are used to help identify problems. But when we’re adept at a task, we no longer need those checks and balances.

I’m not suggesting that we take additional unnecessary risk; some things HAVE to be done to comply with regulations or policy.

What I am suggesting is you review the effectiveness of every sub-task (like filling out a section on a form) and review whether it really adds to the quality of your product/service, increases profit, or reduced risk.

And it’s OK to challenge policy too, if that policy is ineffective.

This is a powerful challenge.

So use your coming performance appraisal as a way of introducing these questions and challenges. Done objectively, it can be a powerful means of stimulating change, and innovation.

©2012 SimonStapleton.com. All Rights Reserved.

Being influential is something we can all develop. In my years in both the corporate and SMEs, I’ve met people who are great and influencing others, and people who are lousy at it. Here are five observations I’ve notice in the latter!

1. Forcing your own agenda

Without a doubt, the biggest mistake in influencing is when someone is on broadcast-mode, talking only about what THEY want to talk about. This is annoying, and I hate this. When I am in this situation, I switch off and my eyes glaze over, and all I then do is to find the best way to get this idiot out of my face. I was at a business show not that long ago and some guy approached me to talk about his financial wizardry, telling me that his scheme was far safer than my pension, and and that I should disinvest my retirement fund and use it to make loads of money in his caper. Not once did he ask me about my situation. He didn’t even listen to the answers to the questions he did ask. He clearly wanted to say his well rehearsed pitch. I couldn’t wait for this ass to leave me alone, and made my exit as soon as I could.

This experience isn’t unique. It happens all the time. You’ve probably experienced it too.

Last time this happened to me, I simply said, “So is it my turn to talk now?”

2. Schmoozing

One other thing I dislike intensely is when someone is clearly trying to be-friend me through insipid sycophancy. Slimy creatures, they are. They smile, nod their heads, but I can see there is no interest in me or my needs whatsoever. Instead they say what they think I want to hear. They buy lunch, and throw in all the treats. They buy our favor, rather than our reasoned agreement. It might feel good to be treated like a king, for a while, but when the reality of making an important decision (from which our OWN performance will be judged by our peers), the technique falls flat on its face.

You see, these people try to buy us into a ‘psychological contract’ that has nothing to do with the product, service or solution. It’s a crude and ineffective use of personal and reward power, with an edge of coercion.

One time this happened, I looked over the oyster shell I had just emptied and asked “So when are you going to get to your point?”

3. Picking Holes

This kind of influencer constantly picks holes at our own statements or situations. They’re relentless. This CAN be a great sales technique if it’s done subtly, and in balanced way. Instead, the person who continually attacks is a dreadful bore, and brings us down. We generally know where our problems are – they don’t need to be irritated or scratched. It’s a negative technique that can only work against the weak-minded, who will say YES just to find relief (only to say NO from a safe distance).

Some chump was doing this last week, so I put on a sad face and said “You’ve made me feel very unhappy now, I don’t want to talk any more.” And left the room.

4. ‘Yes…But’ moments

Don’t you hate it when someone is just waiting for us to catch our breath to interject a ‘Yes… But…’? They’re not listening! When I find myself in one of these conversations, I’m wasting my time. Because the other person is filtering out what I say and listening only for the pauses. It’s similar to point 1, but even more annoying! Someone doing this often moves with a rocking motion – almost as if they’re throwing their body into the gap. Even worse is when they deliberately talk over me.

I sometimes fight fire with fire, and say “Yes… But you’re not listening to me” – this is a good way of disarming your foe without getting aggressive.

5. ‘Divide & Conquer’

These people pick targets off, one by one, and look for their weaknesses – often choosing one of the above tactics to influence them. This is cunning. They expect to build consensus by getting individual agreement to their caper. The thing is, people talk. The whole sham comes crashing down when the group responsible for the decision actually congregate to make the decision, only to discover this flawed tactic.

I’ve dealt with this situation by inviting the enemy into a meeting, only to be faced with the whole group involved in the tactic. Squirm? They can hardly keep their ass on their seat!

©2012 SimonStapleton.com. All Rights Reserved.

French giant Atos has just announced a ban on internal emails. Others are bound to follow suit. So is this the end of internal emails?

According to BusinessInsider, the company intends to do away completely with internal email, instead opting for instant messaging and Facebook-like communication.

BOMBSHELL: Huge Company Bans Internal Email, Switches Totally To Facebook-Type-Stuff And Instant Messaging

I’ve also been working on a project recently with a large financial services institution in the UK – they’re looking at using these technologies for internal communications too. The prevalence of Facebook and instant messaging has changed the game for communication on the whole, and now business is waking up to the potential. Not just that, internal users are demanding it.

Workers are becoming so adept at using social-media platforms that business really has to look at the most effective and efficient means of communication. Organizations are a social enterprise, whether they see themselves that way or not, and social enterprise tools are driving the agenda.

So does this mean you will be replacing your internal email, too?

I think not, in the short-term. Atos are making a brave step, and because of their deliberate and energetic move towards social enterprise functions, they’re ready to make the move.

Most organizations are not, to be blunt.

But I predict over the next 5 years, there will be a big change.

And here is YOUR opportunity.

If you can see the benefit to your organization of using social enterprise technology, you can drive the debate. Like any business change, there needs to be a good case for it… normally stated in increased revenue, reduction in costs, increased profit, better customer service, faster delivery, etc.

It can be a struggle, I admit, to build this case. Straight away, at least. Until you’ve ‘had a go’, it’s hard to measure what the benefit will be. And, of course, there will be the cynics who are scared of change to stifle progress.

But we all have to start somewhere. One thing I’ve seen that works is to begin developing an enterprise community around tools like Facebook and (preferably) LinkedIn. Test the appetite; test the culture; test the technology. And be prepared for frustration – you won’t change things overnight!

©2012 SimonStapleton.com. All Rights Reserved.

This is the first post in a new series ‘Managing Your Manager’. In this post, we’ll be looking how to influence your manager in making decisions.

One thing I have learned as a manager is that making decisions based on information provided by direct reports can be very difficult. All too often, people bamboozle and confuse the decision-making process by providing too much information, and too much choice.

Managers are busy – and we tend to have a wide portfolio of responsibilities. Equally, we employ people to bring expertise and judgment into a situation, so that we don’t have to. This is what delegation is all about, after all.

But when managers receive wide choice, without judgment being applied to narrow the options to a small number of choices, it creates a problem. In most cases, that’s what a managers reports think they want. Wrong.

The Paradox of Choice is a very real concern. In today’s culture (been to a coffee-shop lately?), we’re bombarded by options from which we must choose. Making a choice from a huge array of options is difficult. It can be stressful – especially when the benefits of one option, when compared to the other, are intangible or non-existent. It’s a paradox, because the choices are there to give us what we want and make life easier!

Simple choice makes life easier, and choices happen quicker.

How To Influence Your Manager’s Choice

You can help your manager, and influence their decisions.

It’s so much easier for a manager to make a decision when the number of options are few. In my book, less than six is perfect. Any more than that, then I’m forced to spend much more time and energy weighing up the options.

Even better is when I’m given choices, and a single recommendation. If I trust the judgment of my people, then why shouldn’t I trust them to make a recommendation?

As a manager, (after probing a bit more into how the options were formulated) I still reserve the right to reject all the options, and request more. But this happens infrequently.

What Makes a Good Range of Options?

A decision is based upon facts and assumptions:

• Assumptions about the meaning of facts
• Assumptions about the consequences of the decision
• Assumptions about what has happened in the past, what’s happening now, and what will happen in the future

Assumptions are good, if they’re arrived at through judgment and reasoning. So each option must be justified about what assumptions have been made. Each option may be based on different assumptions. This is good too. We don’t always get our assumptions right, and presenting the possibilities of different assumptions being true demonstrates good judgment too.

Each option must also be backed up with the Business Case – benefits to the organization if that option was to be selected.

Each option must also be backed up with the consequences – i.e. the downsides and impact on other organizational activities.

And each option must also be backed up with the resources required to execute that option: people, money, time, etc.

I find it helps a lot if the limited range of options is presented as a table, with each of the supporting factors (listed above) listed, and even scored.

If you don’t do these things, then your manager has to do it themself!

Taking this approach helps to make the decision as objective as possible. Which, after all, is what a manager (who is making a decision with the best intentions of the organization in mind) desires the most!

©2012 SimonStapleton.com. All Rights Reserved.

It’s foolish to think that the great people of our day, and yesterday, did not experience defeat. High-performers learn to cope with defeat – actually they relish defeat, as a learning opportunity to win, next time.

Any high-flyer that tells you that they’ve got where they are today without tasting failure is lying, or possibly, not what they say they are.

Defeat, of any kind, is a failure to win (I know, obvious.) But here’s the thing – winning or losing is always about playing the odds. A win where the odds are stacked heavily in our favor is not much of a win to brag about, and it’s likely to be something that many other people can win at, too. High-performers are such because they win when the odds are stacked against them. So the chances of failure are great. And fail, they do. It’s the successes they’re remembered for though.

Failure is something that all aspiring high-performers should expect, and plan for.

A wise man fights to win, but he is twice a fool who has no plan for possible defeat
- Louis L’Amour

Take Charles Edison; he was fired from his first two jobs for under-performing! He’s known for inventing the light-bulb (ah but not the energy efficient ones we have to use now…!) It’s said that he tried 1,000 times, and failed, to produce the filament that eventually brought him success. That’s 1,000 failures, for 1 success. That’s a failure rate of 1000:1. Now imagine if he gave up after the 999th attempt. Or the 10th attempt. Or the first? People would have been sitting in darkened rooms, only dimly lit by lamps burning whale-blubber, for decades after. But Edison persisted, learning and refining his materials and methods, until Eureka! A light-bulb came on above his head…

Defeat is not the worst of failures. Not to have tried is the true failure.
- George Edward Woodberry

Now take Walter Elias Disney (that’s Walt to you and I); he was fired by a newspaper editor because “he lacked imagination and had no good ideas.” Can you believe that? He even went bankrupt several times. That’s before he built up his empire. Even Disneyland was rejected by the city of Anaheim, on the grounds that it would only attract “riffraff” to the city. Funny! Disney took defeat on the chin, and thought again. He used each failure as a learning opportunity and was stimulated further to achieve his dreams and goals. Failure was the making of Disney.

Defeat should never be a source of discouragement, but rather a fresh stimulus.
- Bishop Robert South

If you’re an art-lover, you’ll know all about Vincent Van Gogh. Even if you’re not, you’ve probably heard about him. He’s the guy who cut his own ear off and died at the age of 37 from a self-inflicted gunshot. He was a miserable man, for most of his life. Perhaps not a high-performer? He didn’t think so. It’s no surprise though, because he sold only one painting during his life. This was to the sister of one of his friends for 400 francs, which was approximately $50. But in his life, he completed over 800 paintings. Many of these are beautiful, and breath-taking. He is revered today and his works exchange hands for $millions. He didn’t cope with his personal defeats, which is why he didn’t live to see how successful he has become. Shame.

Defeat may serve as well as victory to shake the soul and let the glory out.
- Edwin Markham

High-performance is about learning from our defeats, coping with the fall-out, but then moving on, re-invigorated and a little more wise. More defeats – more invigoration – more wisdom. We shouldn’t be afraid of defeat. As high-performers, we embrace them and expect them, and accept them as the way we get to the top.

We have to first admit our defeats, before they’re in any way useful for our development.

Defeat never comes to any man until he admits it.
- Josephus Daniels

©2012 SimonStapleton.com. All Rights Reserved.

©2012 SimonStapleton.com. All Rights Reserved.

If you run meetings, then you need an agenda. It’s not a surprise, though, how many meetings go ahead without an agenda! (No wonder they don’t really work…!) Here are some tips that will help you put together an A* agenda for your next meeting.

A meeting agenda is YOUR powerful tool to ensure that your meeting achieves its aim. But wait a minute – do you know what the aim of your meeting is? Modern business is plagued by a fixation on meetings. And what I’ve discovered is that meetings are held, week-in, week-out, without a clear purpose. Without a clear agenda. Agendas help steer a meeting effectively towards the goal, but first we gotta know what that goal is. So onto…

Step One: Be Clear About the Purpose of the Meeting

If this isn’t clear, then cancel the meeting straight away! Our meetings must have a desired outcome. E.g. agree an action, make a decision, communicate change. The purpose should be easy to articulate and specific enough so that all attendees know what it’s about. For example:

‘Bad’ purpose: listen to what people have to say about product X.

‘Good’ purpose: gather feedback about product X, and then agree a list of prioritized actions to be performed by the team.

‘Bad’ purpose: to share information about team activity.

‘Good’ purpose: to monitor team activities and agree any management interventions required.

One way to look at it is to take your current meeting ‘purpose’ and then consider: does this meeting actually result in something that can then be carried out?

Step Two: Then Create the Agenda

Once you’re crystal clear about what your meeting is for, you can then begin to put the agenda together. Your agenda should have to following components:

• Date/time/location
• Attendees & other participants – and state who should be present at which agenda item, if not all
• Absentees/apologies – it’s always helpful to state who you know WON’T be there, as this may cause the meeting to be postponed
• Agenda items, to include:
• Agenda item (title and description)
• ‘Inputs’ – any documentation to be used in the agenda item
• Desired outcome (decision, action, or shared information)
• Agenda item duration
• Agenda item owner(s)
• Chairperson
• Minute taker (see Minute-Taking, Made Easy) – to be agreed upfront

Distributing Your Agenda

I recommend that you distribute your agenda as soon as you can. Why? Because:

• It gives people enough chance to prepare agenda items, inputs and any supporting material
• It gives people chance to challenge the agenda, its purpose and participants
• It allows people to consider the appropriateness of the meeting without absent attendees
• It allows enough time to get the meeting into attendee’s diaries

I also suggest you don’t just send the agenda to participants only, but also to anyone else who needs to be informed, such as department heads, supporting staff and people who have made their apologies upfront.

A Note On ‘Quick’/'Heads-Up’ Meetings

Not all meetings require a formal agenda, but nevertheless, a quick meeting still needs a purpose. These meetings work well when everything above holds true, even if it’s communicated quickly in a few statements. For meetings to be effective, participants need time to prepare and get into the ‘zone’ of the meeting, ie. putting aside current tasks so they can focus on your meeting.

©2012 SimonStapleton.com. All Rights Reserved.

If you haven’t, why not? It only takes a few seconds. Here are some ideas on how.

Updating our LinkedIn profiles should be a regular occurrence. Because, who knows, that employer with a lucrative job offer might just be on the hunt for someone like you?

LinkedIn makes it real easy for us too. Here are some ideas to get you going:

1. Add your skills. On your profile page, you can now add skills really easy.  Just scroll down and begin adding them. Be as broad as you can be realistic!
2. Add sections. Here you can add your achievements, courses, awards, publications, projects and test scores.
3. Add languages. Tell people about what languages you speak, even at a basic level.
4. Add education. Don’t forget this!
5. Request recommendations. Ask new contacts for a recommendation. My tip is to give them an overall brief as to what you want them to recommend you for.
6. Make recommendations. Not only does this increase the chances of you receiving a recommendation, it looks good on your own profile too.
7. Add groups. New groups relevant to your niche, interests and organization spring up all the time, so scour for news ones and join them!
8. Contribute. Make comments in groups, ask or answer a question in LinkedIn Questions & Answers.

Give your LinkedIn profile a polish!

©2012 SimonStapleton.com. All Rights Reserved.

The Holidays are only weeks away. How are you going to pay for it?

I can already smell the cinnamon and nutmeg. The tacky ads have long been on the TV telling us how to impart our hard-earned cash on gifts. Oh joy. Won’t the bills mount up? Well we’re all going to be busy before the holidays hit us, so we won’t have much time to think about it.

What if you could save $1,000 to pay for it?

Well I’ve got 3 videos below which tell us how to do that. Imagine – an extra $1,000 to pay for the holidays…

1. CNN Money – great tips on finding that $1,000! (use link)
   
2. Money Talks News help you find that $1,000
   
   

3. Kiplinger with more money-saving advice
   
   

Note the common theme – cancel your gym membership! How much do you really use it?

©2012 SimonStapleton.com. All Rights Reserved.

Unless you’ve been living on mars for the last 5 years, you’ll know that we’re in a global financial crisis. So asking for a raise, right now, will probably lead to disappointment or even conflict. There are, however, alternatives to a raise you can consider.

Most of us need a raise when the income we take doesn’t cover our expenses (of a modest lifestyle). And sometimes we could be asking for a raise to increase our well-being. Here are 20 things you should look at first, before going in with financial demands:

1. Ask for overtime or additional shifts.
2. If you haven’t done so, get clear on what you need to achieve to be promoted.
3. Challenge your organization’s bonus scheme to discover if you can be awarded more for higher performance.
4. Request to telecommute (that’s work from home) a couple of days a week, which will save on your travel costs, car parking, possibly childcare and even on small costs like eating out for lunch.
5. Negotiate benefits to reduce your costs, such as additional health-care,
6. Child-care,
7. Or other insurance.
8. To increase your hourly rate, you could try asking to work less hours in the week for the same salary.
9. Request to adjust your working hours so that you can avoid costs (like childcare as above.)
10. Ask for more paid vacation days.
11. Encourage your employer to negotiate corporate discounts for the local fitness club,
12. Or local car parks,
13. Or local restaurants,
14. Or other local stores that supply expensive large items like white goods (that’s washing machines and fridge-freezers),
15. Or vacation packages.
16. If your organization provides internal training, then request more training.
17. Ask your employer to provide interest-free loans.
18. Discover if your employer can offer you subsidized/discounted travel on trains or subway,
19. Or even air-fare.
20. Request college scholarships for dependents.

If you’re still hell-bent on a raise, then take a look at my post “How To Ask For a Fair Raise or Pay Increase During a Recession“.

Do YOU Know of Other Alternatives?

Then please share it! Leave a comment below.

©2012 SimonStapleton.com. All Rights Reserved.

Do you want to work for a company with great perks and growth opportunities? CNN Money has just announced the The Best Global Companies to Work For. 

Surprisingly to me, Microsoft is at number one. I’m surprised because over the last few years, this software giant has failed to have the impact it enjoyed in previous years. Reading the blurb though, I can see why. Employees are citing a wonderful Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) policy (which is delivered!) This is a recent phenomenon in employee satisfaction results, and testament to the fact that employees everywhere are typically conscious of the plight of the under-priveleged, and gain satisfaction from doing what they can.

Does your organization have a satisfactory CSR policy?

SAS comes in at number two – and the major reason for that is the organization’s focus on training and staff development. The company also avoids outsourcing where there isn’t a clear need to – using internal staff for maintenance and catering. Goes to create a united family!

Does your employer outsource basic services? Do YOU feel like you’re all part of the same family, batting for the same side?

In at number three is NetApp, where employees (after a period of downsizing) are saying that the organization is working towards a commonly understood goal, and that everybody feels part of it. Another example of where establishing a corporate family unit pays dividends (quite literally).

Do you feel part of your organization’s mission? Or are you in a ring-fenced stove-pipe?

At number four is Google. They had to be in at the top-ten somewhere. (Interesting that the top four are tech companies). Employees cite great leadership in mentoring with their Google-to-Googler (g2g) program, for developing talent. Google’s ’20% time’  initiative also gives employees 20% of their work time for brainstorming and creativity – a real investment.

Does your organization invest in thinking and supporting innovation?

Coming in at number five is Fed-Ex – the first non-tech company. Measuring customer satisfaction has helped the global courier to gain numerous internal and external awards for excellent service.

Does your employee regularly measure your satisfaction, and award employees for great work?

At number six is Cisco who invite employees to an informal Q&A with the CEO, John Chambers, demonstrating that the organization really cares about the views of employees and invests the time of the head-honcho in the process. Employees also enjoy job-sharing and on-site childcare.

Does the big-cheese of your company listen to YOUR views?

Sliding in at number seven is Marriott, the global hotel-chain that provides new recruits with a enviable opportunity to learn and engage in company culture by a three-day stint in one of their hotels in Mexico, with a graduation ceremony and an extra one-night stay. Employees begin every shift with a team briefing where company information is shared and employee excellence is acknowledged.

Does your organization share and communicate news about company and employee performance, and bring you into its culture?

Munching its way to number eight is McDonalds where diversity and fairness is a core value, and training is at the heart of providing great customer service.

Is your employer ‘fair’ and treats everyone with the same consideration?

Clinically entering at number nine is Kimberley-Clark whose employees can informally chat with management teams over coffee about their concerns, worries and careers. Job sharing and on-site childcare are benefits that help the challenges of modern life that bit easier.

How does your employer listen to your concerns and give you a voice to communicate them?

Sweeping up the last top-ten spot is S C Johnson whose ‘family company’ motto resonates with employees by considering the balance of work with family life. In their Canada operation, they provide opportunities to try different jobs to discover if they suit you better.

Does your organization support your needs when running a family?

Conclusion

It’s clear that the top-ten best global companies to work for really care about employee well-being, and have invested in it. So often, I see organizations who talk-the-talk, but don’t deliver. Another round of internal re-branding and a review of ‘company values’ just doesn’t cut it if nothing positive is actually delivered or changed.

Managers need to take note: if you want to be recognized as a great place to work, you have to create one!

©2012 SimonStapleton.com. All Rights Reserved.

It feels like our jobs have been under threat for years… doesn’t it? With the recession starting back in 1998 with no improvement since, job security is something that many of us are feeling unsure about. How do you feel?

Take a look at this table of top ten jobs of 2010 in the US (from CNN). Note the top job roles, and levels of perceived job security. Then take a look at the table from the year before. Spot the differences? You’ll see a major drop in job security figures in 2010 from 2009, and a whole different set of top ten jobs. So how will it look this year, do you think? (I’ll announce when the figures are published, so follow my RSS feed!) I doubt, very much, there will be any improvement. Looks scary, don’t it?

But wait.

Earlier in the year, I wrote What Is Job Security (and does it really exist?) Job security is very dependent on our own outlook. It’s a feeling, connected with emotions, and it’s subjective. We won’t be told not to worry.

Job security can’t be given to us. We gotta feel it.

If the economy were to suddenly bounce back, would that change our sense of job security? Probably, but not directly. First, we’d need to believe that a fixed economy actually results in more assurance that our jobs are safe. The responsibility will still be ours.

It will still matter.

Adjusting our Perception

We’re all being subjected to a heap of news full of Fear, Uncertainty and Doubt (FUD). TV, blogs… it’s everywhere. I’m having the odd sleepless night about it – are you? But here’s the thing – the ‘soothsayers’ who broadcast the FUD are only giving us a macro-level view – stuff that concerns the global, national, state or city-wide problem. Your own particular situation, however, is unique to you. We gotta look at that too.

Our sense of job security is rooted in the work we do, the value we create, the skills we possess and the opportunities we can grasp. These things matter too – and much more than what we see on CNN. So look harder at them. Take an objective view:

• Understand what your work does in your organization, and its impact on it
• Identify the skills you have, and not just the ones you write on your resume
• Identify the opportunities you have – whether you’re taking them or not
• Think about the journey you have been on since you began your career, and how far you have come

Spend a little time jotting them down.

I am 100% confident that you will feel better about your situation afterwards. This ‘taking stock’ is a reminder that there is more to job security than news tells us. Job security DOES matter. And because it matters to us, it’s within our control.

©2012 SimonStapleton.com. All Rights Reserved.

Do you need THAT job interview like Yesterday?

Getting that interview is a stressful time – so much is riding on it. Your income, well-being, confidence, self-esteem. Everything, right?

And you’re probably feeling like you have sent your resume to every possible organization this side of the moon. You’ve probably filled in heaps of online job posting too – until your fingers bleed. Sucks, doesn’t it?

We are just a number. It’s frustrating, being just a number. Is there another way of getting our resume to the top of the pile?

Being Different

We can be different. (We are all unique). The first thing for us to do is to present our resume differently. If you’ve not read my post ‘10 Tips to Make Your Resume Pop‘ then go ahead now and refresh your resume to make it stand out. It MUST appeal to recruiters.

Then, it’s also essential that our resume arrives with an outstanding cover letter. This is as important as our resume, as its the first thing a recruiter sees, and it’s at this point where your resume is filtered to the top, or to the bottom. Read my post ‘Great Resumes Arrive With Even Greater Cover Letters‘ to discover just how to do that!

Target Your Resume

So we might have been using a stock resume to send to all our prospects. This is a good volume tactic, but it’s unlikely to appeal directly to recruiters, compared to those candidates who prepare a targeted resume.

A targeted resume specifically addresses the job opportunity or advertisement, and uses text that mentions aspects of the job description; organization; the organizations practices, products and industry; technologies; regulatory environment; skills required and other features.

I also recommend that we used LinkedIn or other professional social network in our research, and discover people within the organization we are connected to, with links to the organization, and ask them if they have ideas on how to approach.

This requires research. And therefore takes time. You’ll need to:

• Research the organization
• Use LinkedIn (or similar) to gain intelligence on the organization
• Discover the organization’s recruiting process, and make sure you stay within it
• Understand its products, market, industry, regulations, challenges, and technologies
• Send your resume to reply to a specific vacancy or job, and (if possible) to a specific named person in the organization (such as hiring manager)

Following-Up

Following-up is important. You’d be surprised how few people do it, and it’s following-up that presents a great advantage to us!

The best time to follow-up is two or three days after mailing your resume (add another two days if you mailed it on a Thursday, Friday or Saturday), or just 24 hours if you used an online submission. Call the hiring manager and introduce yourself as a candidate for the specific job vacancy, and mention that you’re in the area and that you’re available for an interview. My recommendation is to suggest a specific day and time, and ask for an alternative if your suggestion isn’t convenient. At this stage, you should also have ready a brief overview of why you are a great candidate for the vacancy, and propose why your experience and career achievements make you a good fit for the job. If you want to know how best to describe your career achievements, then take a look at my post “7 Keys To Describe Your Achievements… Know Any More?”

In these situations, we should be assertive, confident, but not pushy. Let the hiring manager do most of the talking.

Your Black Book

If we’re going for a  job in sales, business development, or recruitment, it’s real important to remember that our ‘black book’ is a big asset. Our connections, leads and customers are like gold to potential employers. Notwithstanding any rights our existing employer may have to them (and any restrictions placed on us when we leave their employ!), we should use them to our advantage. So if we have a list of known buyers for product X (and our prospective employer supplies product X) then make it known!

Lastly, Keep It Personal

Remember, we don’t want to be just a number, so the more personal we can make it, the better. If we feel it’s appropriate to, then we should invite hiring managers for a chat over coffee, or even lunch. Create opportunities to use our personality!

After following-up, why not connect with your new contact using LinkedIn?

©2012 SimonStapleton.com. All Rights Reserved.

That ‘New Manager’ handbook that HR passed onto you when you took the job is incomplete. There’s stuff these books just don’t tell you, and what’s more, they miss out the most important elements of leading and managing teams. Want to know more?

When I first became a junior manager, I was given a management handbook. It talked about managing performance, goal-setting, assigning tasks, delegation – all the management speak we hear about day-to-day that gives us reason to draw boxes and arrows. It gave me education, and confidence.

I thought I was ‘da man’. Puffed out chest, cufflinked shirts.

But what I discovered is that management isn’t just about numbers, or tasks, or goals, or individual performance.

I’ve written about these times before (see 5 Major Gaffes I’ve Made as an IT Manager) and they still embarrass me today, but they were a great lesson. Or so I thought. I look back on my ascendancy through managerial ranks and still see goofy things I did. Mistakes that I wasn’t warned about in the management handbooks. Things I could have done, if I had known.

Let me give you an example. I took a role where budgets were tight, timeframes were short, and delivery was king. No room for pussyfooting. So I thought that being a no-nonsense, no-excuse leader that got things done meant walking around like a bad-ass. Yeah, I got things done. Things happened, for sure. But I found that as soon as I took the pressure off, things stopped happening. Because I hadn’t brought the people with me. And worse still, a revolt began to brew within the very cohesive department underneath me.

I learned that management can be tough.

So I look back on those days and think about what I would have done differently to be a better manager, and here’s what I’ve concluded. Leadership is a critical element of management. Management, without leadership, is like being a selfish lover. The business gets done but the people under us don’t get anything from it, if you pardon the pun, and it leads to despondency and eventually revolt.

Leadership is the ‘suring up’ of our management practice, and leaves our environment in a better state for continuous success.

I’ll just use another example.

In my recent post Why Projects Fail, I commented that setting people to stack bricks is one thing, but telling them that they are building a hospital is another. We can manage brick-laying, and set standards, targets and manage performance of bricklayers – they never need to know that they are building a hospital. But I’d bet that when they knew what they were building, productivity increases would be observed, and if you took your eye off their toil, it would continue without your presence.

Management handbooks don’t really show us how to lead. That’s how to create the environment and impetus for our people to flourish, under their own steam. Instead they show us how to inspect stuff.

The Management Handbook I Would Use

42 Rules for Your New Leadership Role: The Manual They Didn’t Hand You When You Made VP, Director, or Manager describes practical and effective actions for us to make a strong start in our new manager job. It draws from extensive interviews with corporate leaders plus the author’s twenty years as a strategy consultant and executive coach. These ‘rules’ form the manual they forgot to hand us when we got that promotion or offer letter.

Subjects include:

• how to gain cooperation from our team,
• read the business culture at our new level,
• tee up smart “quick wins”,
• show others how to work with us,
• assess the business risks in our new role,
• make the most of our strengths without overdoing it,
• work around our weaknesses,
• use team screw-ups to our advantage,
• redesign our undoable job,
• and stay focused on our plan when everyone wants us to fight fires and solve the problems on their desks.

Pam gives us specific guidance for each step of those first few critical months. Her recommendations are shaped by current and classic leadership research, as well as fresh insight from her interviews with executives and surveys of leaders at all levels. With her background as executive coach to top Silicon Valley companies, corporate strategist with Bain and Accenture, and Guest Fellow at Stanford GSB’s Center for Leadership Development and Research, Pam translates the experiences of thousands of leaders into easy-to-read guidance.

Let this book remind us what we did right before, help us avoid common missteps that cause leaders to stumble, and give us new strategies for acing those critical first months. Adjust what we find here to serve team needs, market condition, cultural context, our goals and our personal leadership style.

Buy this book when making a step up, moving to a new organization, or for our friends as they move up. This book is also an ideal reference for executive coaches, HR business partners, management trainers, executive assistants, and others who help new leaders be successful.

©2012 SimonStapleton.com. All Rights Reserved.

Do some tasks take much longer than you want them to? Do you dread some tasks? Well it’s likely your are suffering from procrastination.

I have a friend who, if procrastinating was an Olympic sport, would be a triple gold-medalist. Some tasks take her an age to complete – much longer than they really should. What’s more, she hates these tasks. And it’s amazing how inventive she can be about what other jobs should be done first, like sharpening pencils or cleaning her PC monitor.

Procrastination is a psychological effect. It is when we replace high-priority and urgent activities with less important tasks, therefore putting off the important stuff to a later time (which, by the way, may never come). For example, we might have an urgent report to write, but writing the report is boring, so instead we tidy our desk.

Why do we procrastinate?

Procrastination can be a result of anxiety. Perhaps we’re worried about poor performance in the task, or, we don’t know where to start and can’t (or won’t) get help.

Researchers from the University of Michigan, St. Joseph University, and Ohio State University have also researched the links between the benefit of completing a task and our willingness to do the task. They found that people who feel more ‘entitled’ (i.e. expect to gain a lot from performing any activity) have less patience for activities that don’t provide them with an immediate benefit. In other words, people who believe themselves to be a high-achiever feel less inclined to do things where they don’t get an instant result.

What effect does procrastination have?

Procrastination often results in stress (because that task hasn’t been completed!), a guilty feeling, and a severe loss of personal productivity. The feeling of guilt can be compounded when we know that the lack of action impacts other people.

And here is worst of it. These feelings can then have the effect of further procrastination. It becomes an expanding, vicious cycle.

If we procrastinate, are we bad, or lazy?

No. It is quite normal for most people to procrastinate to a certain extent. I do it. My mom does it. And we’re not lazy. Nor is my super-procrastinator friend.

‘Chronic’ procrastination can be linked to an underlying psychological problem, and often these people don’t seek help because they don’t want to be seen as lazy or unambitious.

For most people, procrastination can be overcome by a few coping tactics. Although this isn’t an exhaustive list, below are a few things to try that I know work for me, and they’re beginning to work for my friend too:

1. Visualize the benefit of performing the task – imagine what our world will look like once it’s done. Often, this is as simple as knowing you don’t have to think about it again. Try and form a vivid image of yourself after the task has been done. This helps us perceive the immediate benefit.
2. Ask someone for help – it’s amazing what a bit of help can do. It can result in a new understanding of the task that makes it easier, or even just emotional support.
3. Avoid low points in your day – I get tired after lunch quite often. Do you? If so, then avoid performing this task then as it will be even more difficult. Either do the task before the low point, or postpone it briefly until afterwards.
4. Manage your time – if you don’t have a set deadline, then create one and hold yourself to it (I find committing this to someone else helps my commitment.)
5. Break the task up into smaller chunks – it’s far easier to focus on a small task than a big one! Identify the sub-tasks, prioritize them in a logical order of importance and start from the top.

If you’re a procrastinator, then I hope these tips help, and please share your experience by leaving a comment below.

©2012 SimonStapleton.com. All Rights Reserved.

More pay, anyone? Who will say NO to that? There is a way to get more pay. Find out how, right here…
Whatever we do for work, we’re probably not being paid as much as you’d like, right? Well the thing is, there is a way to get paid more. But it isn’t a scheme, or a trick, so don’t read on thinking I’m going to tell you where there is a magic-wand up for grabs.

So what do we have to do to get a fatter wallet?

Especially in this economic climate, we all have to prove our worth. Employers expect a pound of flesh for every dollar paid, and there’s no getting away from it. So the essential thing is to work hard, and work smart. I’d be surprised if I was the first to tell you that. I won’t be the last. But I may have an important reminder for you…

Every minute of every day has to create value for your employer.

We are all in a value-chain (see my e-book The 10 Habits of Highly Effective Professionals) and creating value results in profit, happy customers, and ecstatic stakeholders.

When we’re not creating value, we’re creating nothing but CO2. Working hard is about doing the highest-value activities for your employer. Not chit-chatting. Not checking the results of last-nights America’s Got Talent.

And guess what? When we create value for our employer, we create value for yourselves (pay and promotion, that is).

OK (I hear ya) – it’s easy for me to say it. If it was that easy, we’d all be doing it, right? Well, it might not be that easy, but I know it’s that simple.

We all have a choice when we’re sat in our cube whether to do activity A, or activity B. Sometimes, we choose to do activity B (that’s the value-less activity) if it’s easier, takes less time, or it’s less painful. This is called procrastination. We even justify it to ourselves that ‘oh yeah I really must do activity B so I can give my full attention to activity A’… but we find so many ‘activity Bs’ to do, and then it’s time to go home. Without any activity A done.

My point is, working hard and working smart is about putting in the graft on the things that matter. Real hard graft gets noticed. Real value speaks for itself. Employers, in turn, sit up and notice. This is when we hit pay-dirt.

What about the Work-Life Balance I go on about?

Sure – I talk about not working yourself to the bone. And I am not suggesting that we do. But putting the hours in on high-value work is a choice, and it’s yours to make. A few extra hours can make all the difference.

“The top 10 percent of money-earners in America work 50 hours or more per week. The highest-paid 1 percent of Americans work an average of 56 hours per week. And more importantly, they work all the time they work. They do not waste time. They arrive at work early and they immediately start on their most important tasks. They work steadily throughout the day. They are friendly, but they do not spend the day making small talk or engaging in idle chitchat with their co-workers.” – Brian Tracy.

Do This Today

Look at what’s on your to-do list, rank in importance (value) and get the big-ticket items done. No chat. No coffee. Just do it (JFDI). And before you go home, write tomorrow’s list in the same fashion.

And there are more tips like this in this book: Get Paid More and Promoted Faster: 21 Great Ways to Get Ahead in Your Career, by Brian Tracy (quoted above). He knows his stuff. He is is one of America’s leading authorities on the development of human potential and personal effectiveness.

©2012 SimonStapleton.com. All Rights Reserved.

According to the latest statistics, nearly 13.7 million Americans are currently unemployed. While we’re more than grateful that we have a job and we are able to provide for our families, that doesn’t mean we necessarily “like” our job. It that’s true, then you’re not alone.

About 80 percent of all Americans loath their jobs and dread coming into work each morning, according to statistics. Let it be said that if we are truly that unhappy with our current employment status, then perhaps its best that we find a job somewhere else—a job that will be able to provide us with our wants and needs. But if making that sort of leap in a not so stable-economy is scary, then we can at least try to make those unbearable 8 hour work days a little bit more enjoyable! Here’s what we can do:

1. Start the day off right. While the main source of your unhappiness is in fact your job, the way you start off our day can in fact influence our overall mood—if we start the day in a grouchy mood, chances are those sentiments will transition into the workplace as well. To make sure that we always wake up on the right side of the bed, get the proper 6 to 8 hours of sleep, we must get up in enough time to drink your morning cup of coffee, get dressed and eat a well balanced breakfast (whatever you do, you don’t want to feel ‘rushed’ which can escalate irritability and moodiness). Some other tips that might make us a little more chipper than usual is to remind ourselves why we do what we do in the first place and post inspirational quotes/photos somewhere we can see when you wake up, like on the bathroom mirror; we can also listen to some favorite music on the drive to work; or do some mild morning exercises—it’ll get the “happy” chemicals called endorphins pumping through our systems.

2. Become acquainted with our co-workers. If you’ve worked at your place of employment for quite some time you should already know your co-workers quite well. But if you are the type that likes to bring his or her lunch to work every day and eats at their desk alone (basically you like to be anti-social and keep to yourself), it might just be time for you to branch out and start to be-friend the people that you see 5 days out of the week. Not only will these people be able to brighten your day (you’ll have people to talk too and the days won’t go by as slowly) but they will also be there to support you and give you applause whenever you do something note worthy in the office. The feeling of appreciation can persuade us to stick it out a little longer and make us realize that all of our hard work isn’t going unnoticed. So agree to go to lunch with your co-workers occasionally or finally attend one of those after work happy-hours that you always pass on.

3. Take a ‘Real’ Break. If you sit in front of a computer all day long, one the worst possible things you can do is cut your break short and eat your lunch right in front of the screen. Chances are you won’t get full, which will lead to moodiness, and you won’t give your over-worked brain a rest. While it’s understandable that there may be days that we feel overwhelmed with work and feel that we don’t even have a spare moment to even get up to use the restroom, we still need to find a time to take a break—we’re not robots and this kind of behavior will burn us out rather quickly (not to mention make us hate our job even more).  So detach yourself from your desk and give yourself a chance to relax.  You could take a short walk outside and stretch your muscles to release any tension that might be built up in your neck and shoulder from typing on the computer key board. Or you could even find a extra sunny spot and eat your lunch out there—experts suggest that sun exposure can actually help fight moodiness and depression. After your break, you’ll feel more refreshed and ready to tackle whatever may come your way.

4. Shake Up Your Routine. One of the reasons why some people hate their jobs is because it’s the same boring thing every day. Instead of getting stuck in a rut, we can change the way we do things. Shake it up a bit! For example, eat somewhere new, do assignments in different order, or take a different route to or from work. These ideas may seem simple, but even the slightest change can bring a breath of fresh air.

5. Discuss Issues with Boss. Lastly, if you already know the true reason why you are unsatisfied— maybe you are having issues with a difficult co-worker, maybe you are unhappy with your salary, or maybe you are just bored with your assignments and would like to do something more challenging— then don’t just stay in silence and wallow in disgust with your current status. Talk to your boss about it and see what changes can be made. For example try to see what other opportunities exist for you within the company— is there any way that you can move up or did you already reach as far as you can go? Whatever it is, try to see if you can turn the situation around.

Additional tip: Instead of focusing on the negative aspects of your job, we can try to highlight the positives—do you have great benefits? A lot of vacation days? Do you get seasonal bonuses? Do you have wonderful co-workers? Whatever the perks of your job may be, try to remind yourself of all of the good things your job has to offer. It may just be what you need to appreciate your job a little bit more.

What To Do When We Hate Our Job: 5 Easy Ways to Make Our Day More Enjoyable

According to the latest statistics, nearly 13.7 million Americans are currently unemployed. While we're more than grateful that we have a job and we are able to provide for our families, that doesn't mean we necessarily "like" our job. It that’s true, then you're not alone. About 80 percent of all Americans loath their jobs and dread coming into work each morning, according to statistics. Let it be said that if we are truly that unhappy with our current employment status, then perhaps its best that we find a job somewhere else—a job that will be able to provide us with our wants and needs. But if making that sort of leap in a not so stable-economy is scary, then we can at least try to make those unbearable 8 hour work days a little bit more enjoyable! Here’s what we can do:

1. Start the day off right. While the main source of your unhappiness is in fact your job, the way you start off our day can in fact influence our overall mood—if we start the day in a grouchy mood, chances are those sentiments will transition into the workplace as well. To make sure that we always wake up on the right side of the bed, get the proper 6 to 8 hours of sleep, we must get up in enough time to drink your morning cup of coffee, get dressed and eat a well balanced breakfast (whatever you do, you don’t want to feel 'rushed' which can escalate irritability and moodiness). Some other tips that might make us a little more chipper than usual is to remind ourselves why we do what we do in the first place and post inspirational quotes/photos somewhere we can see when you wake up, like on the bathroom mirror; we can also listen to some favorite music on the drive to work; or do some mild morning exercises—it'll get the "happy" chemicals called endorphins pumping through our systems.

2. Become acquainted with our co-workers. If you've worked at your place of employment for quite some time you should already know your co-workers quite well. But if you are the type that likes to bring his or her lunch to work every day and eats at their desk alone (basically you like to be anti-social and keep to yourself), it might just be time for you to branch out and start to be-friend the people that you see 5 days out of the week. Not only will these people be able to brighten your day (you'll have people to talk too and the days won't go by as slowly) but they will also be there to support you and give you applause whenever you do something note worthy in the office. The feeling of appreciation can persuade us to stick it out a little longer and make us realize that all of our hard work isn't going unnoticed. So agree to go to lunch with your co-workers occasionally or finally attend one of those after work happy-hours that you always pass on.

3. Take a 'Real' Break. If you sit in front of a computer all day long, one the worst possible things you can do is cut your break short and eat your lunch right in front of the screen. Chances are you won't get full, which will lead to moodiness, and you won't give your over-worked brain a rest. While it's understandable that there may be days that we feel overwhelmed with work and feel that we don't even have a spare moment to even get up to use the restroom, we still need to find a time to take a break—we're not robots and this kind of behavior will burn us out rather quickly (not to mention make us hate our job even more).  So detach yourself from your desk and give yourself a chance to relax.  You could take a short walk outside and stretch your muscles to release any tension that might be built up in your neck and shoulder from typing on the computer key board. Or you could even find a extra sunny spot and eat your lunch out there—experts suggest that sun exposure can actually help fight moodiness and depression. After your break, you'll feel more refreshed and ready to tackle whatever may come your way.

4. Shake Up Your Routine. One of the reasons why some people hate their jobs is because it's the same boring thing every day. Instead of getting stuck in a rut, we can change the way we do things. Shake it up a bit! For example, eat somewhere new, do assignments in different order, or take a different route to or from work. These ideas may seem simple, but even the slightest change can bring a breath of fresh air.

5. Discuss Issues with Boss. Lastly, if you already know the true reason why you are unsatisfied— maybe you are having issues with a difficult co-worker, maybe you are unhappy with your salary, or maybe you are just bored with your assignments and would like to do something more challenging— then don't just stay in silence and wallow in disgust with your current status. Talk to your boss about it and see what changes can be made. For example try to see what other opportunities exist for you within the company— is there any way that you can move up or did you already reach as far as you can go? Whatever it is, try to see if you can turn the situation around.

Additional tip: Instead of focusing on the negative aspects of your job, we can try to highlight the positives—do you have great benefits? A lot of vacation days? Do you get seasonal bonuses? Do you have wonderful co-workers? Whatever the perks of your job may be, try to remind yourself of all of the good things your job has to offer. It may just be what you need to appreciate your job a little bit more.

©2012 SimonStapleton.com. All Rights Reserved.

Have you just taken on your first managerial role? (Congratulations!) You won’t want to miss these 10 valuable tips!

I remember my first position as a manager. It was a nerve-racking time as I don’t think anybody (no matter what they say!) is really ready for it. We can go on managerial training courses, and read books, but nothing really prepares you for it except plain old experience. So let me share my experiences with you so you can avoid the common pitfalls of becoming a manager for the first time.

1. First of all, keep a level head and don’t think that you’re the CEO. Managers who face employees with a head full of themselves quickly lose the respect and compliance of their team. Don’t let the new badge shine in your peoples face too brightly!
2. Just as important, though, is to be a manager. In your new role, you and your team have responsibilities, and you must deliver on them. So your new authority must come to bear when it is needed. Many new managers take a while to become comfortable with their new power, especially if promoted from with their ranks. It’s important to be supportive, directive and manage for performance. Use your power, appropriately (see my article The Five Sources of a Leader’s Power, and how (and how not) to use them)
3. Network with other managers to learn how things are done. Don’t be afraid of asking your managerial colleagues for their view on how management works best in your organization. There are often unwritten rules or best practice that you need to find out. You’ll also need a support network for the times when your new job takes its toll on your stress levels, or if you need advice (or a shoulder to cry on…) Don’t be an island! Schedule some coffee-meets as soon as you can.
4. And to further the above point, learn about your organizational culture. You might be new to your organization, and often culture can appear differently from the other side of the desk. Understand what values drive decisions within your organization. If you didn’t know this before, then you need to know now, because going against the culture and values of your organization can be disasterous for your career there!
5. Remember, everybody is a resource. This is one the habits in my eBook ‘The 10 Habits of Highly Effective Professionals‘ (free when you sign up to my newsletter). Every single person in your team is good at something, and it’s your job to put them to work doing it. So the sooner you do the point below, the better.
6. Get to know the strengths and weaknesses of your team members. Managing for performance is your way to success! You don’t need to patch up everyone’s weaknesses (in fact, don’t focus on weakness.) Focus, and apply, your people’s strengths.
7. Performance Management is a continual process – not done only at appraisal time. Performance reviews must be done throughout the year and use appraisals only to formalise things. I always hold weekly one-on-one meetings with my team members where we discuss performance and how we can address issues. It’s so much easier, for both manager and employee, if performance issues are dealt with in small chunks.
8. Discuss your new role with your team early and invite questions. Discuss any changes you would like to make and explain how you are applying your own style. Upfront discussion about how things are going to work, from now, displays confidence. But let your resolve be fuzzy around the edges to allow influence from your team if your confronted with reasonable logic!
9. Strike your ‘contract’ with your boss. What I mean is, ask you new boss how they want to receive information, and give direction. Open a door upwards, as well as downwards. The ‘key performance indicators’ of your team (i.e. what measurable things are most important) should have been made clear when you took on the job, but they’re not always. It’s best to seek clarity on these things now, before you find out at your first moment of failure!
10. Don’t be afraid to ask for feedback from your team. You’re not perfect (who is?) and the best people to give you feedback are the people you work with the most. Foster open communications, and always make sure that it’s done respectfully.

©2012 SimonStapleton.com. All Rights Reserved.

If I was to ask 1,000 managers what they really want from an employee, what do you think they would say? At the nub of it, managers desire excellence more than anything else. How do we know if we are delivering excellence?

Excellence is subjective. Excellent to me might be mediocre to you, but I can guarantee that there is one single measure that you can rely on. That’s your own view of it.

I am a big fan of knowing what my colleagues within my organization think of me – and I ask it directly. Measuring feedback is an important activity for any determined employee, and there are great tools to achieve it to boot (e.g. 360 degree feedback).

Then again… an even greater measure of excellence to me is how I feel about the quality of service I deliver to my employer. I don’t mean that to sound narcissistic. I mean that if I don’t believe I am delivering excellence to my employer, then I know that I can do more for them. (And chances are, my employers feel the same way too!)

We all know how excellent we can be; whether it’s going that extra mile on a project, even if it isn’t asked for, or putting in higher quality ingredients – you get the picture. And we all know when we’re not giving excellence too. Perhaps it’s a question of conscience, but after the occasions I know I haven’t been excellent, I felt I hadn’t done my duty by them and then felt less confidence in the ongoing business relationship. I’ve worried about whether my manager will complain, or (even worse) fire me without saying a word. I’ve been on tenterhooks the next time I went into their office, and perhaps it showed too.

Do excellence and self-interest conflict?

I don’t think so. Sure, we have to draw the line in quality somewhere to ensure what we do actually delivers, and it is personally profitable. But if I knew I could deliver better quality, and still make the profit I expect, then I would do it.

I don’t know about you but I love it when I get a surprise when something is received better than I expected?

The last time that happened is when I got my iPhone. Not the latest version though…

What We Can Learn from Apple Inc

My iPhone was wonderful, but not always. This is when the new iPhone 4 came out and Apple also released new software for my version. I rely on my iPhone, and the experience was terrible. It crashed, buttons not working, etc. The business tool I came to rely on the most let me down. And what are we as employees? We’re business tools.

The thing is, Apple can be excellent. Truly excellent. They have proven that. But that time, they let me down because they rushed the product and new software to market, probably cut corners on testing it, and it blew up in their face. I am not as confident, now, if I will buy another iPhone again.

Shame.

What I have learned from Apple is this:

Selling an employer short is bad for our career and personal profit. The short term gains are insignificant to the damage done. Managers expect excellence from us, and what’s more, so should we.

©2012 SimonStapleton.com. All Rights Reserved.

How often have you been told “That’s a Bad Idea“? Well here’s the thing; There is no such thing as a bad idea. No idea is bad, in itself, but perhaps making the idea could be. Let me explain…

When someone says that an idea is bad, I tell them to take a hike. An idea is a thought – a seed of potential change. They’re the birth of something new, or different. Everything that has come into existence through human endeavor began as an idea.

Without ideas, we wouldn’t innovate, or learn, or progress as a race. Inside organizations, ideas create opportunities to develop new products, new services, or new processes. Organizations need ideas to remain competitive and to grow, and to profit. Shareholders depend on them.

So why should ANY idea be bad?

Soothsayers who say an idea is BAD are, perhaps, scared of change, or can’t face challenge. To hell with them, I say.

Sometimes, though, to continue developing an idea and putting it into action could be described as ‘bad’. Some ideas do not result in a positive change, but that doesn’t make the idea bad – only the way the idea was elaborated is bad.

Auto historians will tell us that the Ford Edsel was a bad idea. Sure, Ford lost millions of dollars by bringing this car to the market (Ford lost $350 million ($2.45 billion in 2009 values)). More recently, Google Wave was set to challenge Twitter and instant messaging, but in August 2010 Google ceased developing it.

Bad ideas? No. Quite possibly, they were badly marketed; badly developed; or badly launched. And perhaps, both were too ahead of the market.

According to author and Edsel scholar Jan Deutsch, the Edsel was “the wrong car at the wrong time.”

Your Ideas and Your Organization

You are allowed to have ideas. Period. There is no law against having ideas (in the Western world, anyway). As an effective professional, your organization needs you to form ideas in order to become more efficient, and more effective. Not all your ideas will go anywhere. Here are the common reasons why:

• Your idea is impossible to deliver (resource issues)
• Your idea will not increase company profit (cost vs benefit)
• Your idea disrupts other ventures (portfolio conflict)
• Your idea requires too much funding (capital issues)
• Your idea is not communicated well (communication issues)
• Your idea creates stifling politics (political issues)
• Your idea creates organizational disparity (remuneration issues)
• Your idea breaks policy or regulations (policy issues)
• Your idea isn’t competitive (market issues)

An idea can die for many reasons. But does that mean having the idea in the first place is bad? Definitely not! Because all of the above are prophecies of the end result of an idea. The way your ideas are developed, the way resources are mobilized, the way it is communicated… are all variable, and situational. This is why some ideas work inside one organization, and don’t work in others. (What would have happened if the Edsel was conceived inside Chrysler?) There are many different ways that organizations develop ideas to innovate. They’re the pathway an idea treads to become something tangible.

If you have an idea today that ‘prophets’ are saying is bad, then don’t give up yet. Instead, listen to the reasons why these people think so, and discover a different way forward. Perhaps you’re not talking to the right people, or you’ve not yet discovered how to grab the attention of someone who can sponsor your idea.

If you’re sure you’re on the right path, then ask yourself  ‘what criteria does this idea need to satisfy to move it forward, and how can I measure when they’re satisfied?‘ It’s important that you start your journey by having at hand the relevant data to give your idea credence. Your idea must be as specific as you can be at the time. Talk in terms of:

• Resource requirements
• Costs, revenue and profit
• How your idea impacts other organizational ventures
• The investment required to make your idea happen
• Who needs to know about the idea
• Who will benefit from the idea inside your organization
• What rules and regulations your idea will need to comply with, or challenge
• Why your idea is competitive

At the idea stage, the precision of these statements will be low – they’re just a starter to be later validated, challenged or rejected.

The conclusion I want to share with you is that your ideas, no matter how crazy or challenging, are just the beginning of a journey. It’s the journey that could fail, not the idea. To give up on an idea without taking a single foot forward on the journey is a waste of of an opportunity – one which could change your organization, or even the world.

Addendum: Make Your Ideas Happen

I just found this great book: Making Ideas Happen: Overcoming the Obstacles Between Vision and Reality which I gladly discovered – because it’s a mini-course in a book that will help anyone get an idea off the ground, or recover a failing idea and turn it into a successful one. It talks about (in it’s own way) the ‘pathways’ I mentioned above. It provides guidance on moving away from something vague and locked inside our heads into a real ‘project’ – one which we share with our colleagues and lead. The single most important lesson I took away from it is that making ideas happen isn’t about how great the idea is, is it’s about how well we execute it! Buy it!

©2012 SimonStapleton.com. All Rights Reserved.

How often do you feel like you’re stuck in your job and can’t find a way to fix it or move on? If you’re like me, then you will have thought this often throughout your career. However, I think that this has all been in my mind. Here’s why.

This post is a follow-on from my article We Are Not Constrained, where I discussed the reasons why I think that most of the constraints we believe we suffer from aren’t real constraints – just problems to overcome. In this post, I take this a bit further to suggest that we are not stuck in a rut; instead we just haven’t found this solution to our career crisis, yet. I’ll start with a story.

A friend, Mike, graduated from college four years ago and began work in what he thought was his dream job – a graphics designer. Mike was hot property as his portfolio included some innovative work. So lucky Mike was recruited straight from college without suffering the long periods of anxiety and doubt that many graduates face today. And ‘ker-ching’ – he received his first pay check and began living the dream. He bought his own modest apartment, put a deposit down on a brand new Ford, and made a reservation in a hotel in the Caribbean. Into the trash went the hoodies, and on came the Hugo Boss. Things could not get better. Right?

Guess what…? A year into his dream job, his employer was absorbed into the parent organization and many of Mike’s close colleagues and his boss were transferred around the organization. Mike had a great relationship with his boss, who gave him a lot of support and she took a real interest in his career and development. Mike’s workplace moved to a larger, out-of-town unit surrounded by concrete manufacturers and unsanitary burger-joints. Things just weren’t the same, and Mike resented this. He stayed in this job, but new boss treated him like crap and he hated the environment. The love of the work and the workplace dropped through the floor.

Mike begun to look for alternative employment, but what he found was that other companies couldn’t pay the same, or were not comfortably commutable (Mike loves his apartment), or that they didn’t offer the same interesting work, or that they didn’t appreciate his potential, or the receptionist didn’t have nice teeth…. yada yada. Mike couldn’t find a job that was significantly, or even insignificantly better than his current job, so he concluded he was stuck in a rut. Truth is, he was still too comfortable to move on, but wasn’t 100% happy where he was. We might say that this is ‘being stuck between a rock and a hard place’.

Many people get ‘stuck’ in jobs, because they don’t like them (or even hate them), but there isn’t an alternative that ticks all the boxes to provide enough motivation to move on. As in Mike’s case, quitting a job isn’t always the best option. Whatever our reasons for staying in a job we dislike, there are ways to make the best of a less than ideal situation. Here’s how.

Identify the Problems

Until we can clearly identify what the problems are, we can’t really solve them. Now Mike resented the changes, and couldn’t see any good in the new situation. He was emotional – hurt and angry that his dream job had been snatched from him. He couldn’t work out exactly what the problems were, but did miss what he had lost. When Mike first told me about his situation (about 18 months ago), the first thing I suggested was that he lists the problems out on paper. To his surprise, he found this to be much more difficult than he expected, and often resorted to what was taken away rather than what the problems were with what remained. We persisted, and eventually Mike drew out a list of 8 things that really bugged him. And you know what? They weren’t really grave problems (or viewed as constraints) – they were significant problems that he didn’t know how to solve. They were:

1. His boss didn’t provide him with support (mentorship)
2. He didn’t feel a member of a team; instead he felt he worked alone
3. He didn’t like the aesthetics of the workplace and local area
4. His boss didn’t show appreciation for what he considered excellent work
5. He didn’t like the high partitions between surrounding pods
6. His workplace was noisy (due to the concrete factory next door)
7. He didn’t enjoy opportunities to move around the organization
8. Long work hours meant he couldn’t be at home in his apartment or out partying with his buddies as often as he wished

When you look at this list, can you see possible solutions? This is what Mike and I looked at next. 


Identify Possible Solutions

Mike was jaded by his experience. Solution finding was not something he felt motivated to do, because he had been so damaged by the changes (his dreams has dissolved, after all). After much soul-searching, Mike admitted he was using this as an excuse. Way-to-go Mike! He had overcome a major hurdle.

So I suggested to Mike that he lists a possible solution against each problem, and this is what he came up with:

1. His boss didn’t provide him with support (mentorship) – Solution: talk to his boss in a one-to-one situation and ask for more support, and say how he would like it to happen?
2. He didn’t feel a member of a team; instead he felt he worked alone – Solution: get involved more with colleagues and ask for help, and also offer help too?
3. He didn’t like the aesthetics of the workplace and local area – Solution: only one way, get over it?
4. His boss didn’t show appreciation for what he considered excellent work – Solution: ask for more feedback from his boss. Maybe his boss doesn’t think the work is excellent, so finding out will be constructive?
5. He didn’t like the high partitions between surrounding pods – Solution: ask colleagues if they feel the same way, and propose to boss that they are lowered, or removed entirely?
6. His workplace was noisy (due to the concrete factory next door) – Solution: ask boss if Mike can use his iPod when it gets real noisy, or ask for a subsidy on noise-reduction earphones?
7. He didn’t enjoy opportunities to move around the organization – Solution: talk to boss about future prospects and state that this is important?
8. Long work hours meant he couldn’t be at home in his apartment or out partying with his buddies as often as he wished – Solution: ask boss if some work can be completed at home, or better still ask boss for occasional early leave from the office?

See how Mike began to think of positive outcomes for his problems? He discovered (all by himself) that there are a number of things he can ask for, or put into place himself, to make the situation better. At this stage, Mike felt a huge burden lift off his shoulders, even without solving the problems.

So What Happens Next?

Well what Mike observed next was the snowball effect. He went to his boss and had a good long chat about his problems. To his surprise, the result of this was an immediate set of actions that begun a real roll of improvement for Mike. He started by asking for more support, and it started a wave of change because a dialog had begun and rapport had taken hold. His boss wasn’t an ogre, but rather, was struggling with the change himself and at first impressions, saw Mike as hostile (which to be fair, he was.)  So the partitions were lowered. Mike began to help his colleagues, and he felt more within a team, and he discovered that his work was well respected throughout the organization. His boss agreed to weekly one-to-one meetings. And here’s the interesting thing – once Mike had seen signs of resolution on a number of fronts, some of the other problems seemed to be far less important. The noise next door stopped bugging him (without any sonic intervention!) and he began to see more interesting and beautiful things closeby to his work environment, such as a public park where he now eats his lunch with a couple of buddies.

What Mike had learned is that taking responsibility for resolving his own problems had a great result. And, ultimately, he discovered he wasn’t stuck in a rut!

©2012 SimonStapleton.com. All Rights Reserved.

If you’re like me, then you’ll be looking forward to a relaxing holiday season. Not longer after we return to work, we’ll be facing our annual performance appraisal! So not to be caught in the headlights, now is a great time to easily prepare for our appraisal.

The annual appraisal process is, in fact, something that benefits ourselves. It sets an agenda for the coming year for our personal development and our growth. BUT it’s bad timing though (ain’t it?) – right after a time when we think nothing more than enjoying parties and having a good time with our folks.

Well, not to put a too finer point on it, if we begin to prepare now then the appraisal process will feel so much easier (and welcome!) when we get back into the office after the holidays.

And here are some great books that will help you along, and they won’t break the bank too!

1. If you are the reviewer or reviewee during a performance appraisal, then here is a very good book that shares phrases to use. It isn’t just a ‘say this, and then this…’ kind of book, it shows you what phrase-constructs to use in the right context to help make a performance appraisal as effective as it could be: 2600 Phrases for Effective Performance Reviews: Ready-to-Use Words and Phrases That Really Get Results.
2. Performance Appraisal: Pocket Mentor (Harvard Pocket Mentor) is a great little book from Harvard Business School Press, giving you ‘immediate solutions’ to the process. It’s short, sharp and to the point in only 73 pages. What I like about this is the focus on us as the appraisee and it explains how to use the appraisal process to our advantage. Best of all, it helps the reader understand how to avoid the pitfalls in the process in order to eliminate complaints and a perceived lack of fairness.
3. RECOMMENDED: If you’re a fan of the For Dummies series then you’ll love this one. Performance Appraisals and Phrases For Dummies (For Dummies (Lifestyles Paperback)) typifies the series in a jargon-free, easy to understand run through performance appraisals and how they help us achieve personal goals. It helps our appraisals go faster, more effectively, and (if you engage in the process) you’ll get better results. It includes tips for gathering information and data to support your appraisal and also includes 3,200 phrases to help you articulate yourself well in your performance appraisal itself.

All three books are suited to people of all industries, roles and seniority. Some preparation now will lead to a less worrying time after the holidays!

©2012 SimonStapleton.com. All Rights Reserved.

If we didn’t make mistakes, we wouldn’t be human. Still, when we mess up at work we often find ourselves in a sticky, embarrassing situation. So here are some tips I’ve used that can get the mess cleared up.

The first, and best advice I can share is: DON’T PANIC. (I’ve learned this from painful experience.) Panicking almost always ends up with the situation being made worse. Once I made an administrative error that cost my employers a fair wedge of money because I panicked and made a subsequent mistake that made the original look like a minor ink-blot! I tried to do the right thing, but under pressure I made the situation worse. I didn’t consult anyone else – if I had I would have taken a more measured approach.

I almost experienced my first formal disciplinary. And red cheeks in the office for a few hours too.

What I learned here was not to rush to rectify the situation without thinking it through, and even more importantly, I should have told my boss about it.

You know, unless you have a difficult and unreasonable boss (if you do, then take a look at my article ‘What Should You Do If Your Boss Hates You?‘) then it’s likely that they understand, too, that to err is to be human. That said, what most bosses don’t like is when we don’t handle the situation properly when we do make a mistake.

Mistakes happen – they’re expected, and that’s why there are protocols for dealing with them. Most organizations have teams dedicated to mopping up issues. Most management structures include some form of problem resolution, because unexpected things happen. Complaints team; client services; hit squads; first-aid teams – they all exist because things go wrong. So when they do, we should work with these protocols to resolve them.

Yada yada… even so, when a mistake happens, it’s not always easy to face it, square-on. I know! It could be a blot on a clean-sheet, or the straw that broke the camel’s back. So what do we do when we realize what a gaffe we’ve made? Here’s what I do:

First of all, I get over the initial rush of adrenalin. We don’t handle things with a level head if we work with the initial rush. That’s in panic-territory. I let the hormonal imbalance subside, and get my head straight.

Next, I quantify and qualify the mistake. I ask myself if the mistake is a genuine one (is my information correct?), and then I look at the impact. Who is affected; when were they affected; how much; where was the effect. Etc, etc. E.g. I might see that a problem will result in a $1,000 loss, it affected only 2 local customers.

Then I consider who should be informed. I do a quick check as to who the stakeholders are – normally the people who are affected. This helps in assessing the priorities and enables me to target any rectification to the highest-risk areas (e.g. the biggest customers)

Next, I establish what the resolution protocol is. Before I go to my boss, I consider what should be done about the issue. Knowing a range of solutions to the problem steers the conversation towards the fix, and away from blame too. However, I don’t waste time if I can’t find out quicky. If there are established emergency protocols in place, then put them into action.

Then, I go see my boss. If the wheels of rectification are in motion, or not, I go see my boss. This isn’t to go cap-in-hand for forgiveness (although that might happen too); instead it is to ensure that the chain of responsibility is maintained. If there is going to be ramifications, then my boss better know about it. So it’s about courtesy, too.

I deal with the fall-out. Sometimes, it’s not enough just to put out the fire. It’s rare we can just walk away and leave the embers smouldering. After most calamities, there are the consequences to manage, and I find it’s better to get onto the front-foot by communicating these first before other people remind me of them. Before now, I’ve sent communications right through the organization to inform colleagues of the situation, and if there are any temporary changes in modus operandi as a result. It’s a managed way of fessing-up before the rumor mill starts, and again, it’s courteous. I’ve also been in roles where I have produced incident-reports afterwards, which are more formal communications that record what happened, why, where, when, etc.; what was learned; remedial actions; future mitigation and risk management procedures.

Finally, I remember that Accidents Do Happen. Business is not engineered for perfection. In the workplace, accidents happen. So I always keep this in the back of my mind; I could beat myself up over every mistake, but even when I have taken care and sensible precautions, and I have the right skills and resources to perform my job, mistakes are still (hopefully rare) occurrences that will inevitably happen.

©2012 SimonStapleton.com. All Rights Reserved.

Working for a living is tough enough, but sometimes it is harder than it should be because you have to deal with people problems at work, especially when your boss is one of the people that give you grief.

Without a careful approach to the situation, your hostile job situation could end up costing you your health and your career.

To help you develop a good approach to the problem, here are 8 tips for working with a difficult office manager that can ease your mind and help you have a better life.

1. Bring a box of chocolates – If you have one of those volatile, unpredictable bosses that are calm and reasonable one moment and then ballistic the next, try giving the gift of chocolate. By bringing a gift you show that you aren’t taking the stressful antics personally and a little chocolate can go a long way toward easing the stress your boss is dealing with.
2. Limit communication to email – If your boss has issues with being respectful and professional in the workplace, try to limit your personal interaction with her. By communicating through email, you have a record of everything that was said that can serve as valuable protection should you be selected as the next scapegoat for her performance issues. Besides, you’ll be less likely to be drawn into a scenario that escalates into a shouting match that you will later regret.
3. Keep a record of every incident – It takes time to sit down and write an account of every incident that happens at work, but the modern workplace requires it. Keep a written, audio, or video journal that documents your daily activities, your interactions with customers, vendors, and co-coworkers. This protects you when you face arbitrary accusations from your manager. Your records will help you establish your case if you ever have to escalate the problem to the executive level or if you need to take legal action. If you are asked to do something illegal or are physically assaulted or threatened on the job, call the police on the spot.
4. Leave your boss at work – Some managers can have genuine mental health issues that cause them to take pleasure in causing your misery. If yours is like this, make a deliberate effort to be happy on the job and have plenty of photos of the good times you’re having with family and friends. This not only shows your manager that you are still having a good life, but leaving your work problems at the office show you where your priorities are.
5. Combat vagueness – Some managers are deliberately vague because they need an outlet to receive blame when the project doesn’t come out right. If you follow her instructions and fail, then she is part of the problem, but if you fail trying to do your work on your own, than you are the problem and you must pay. Get specific requirements and expectations from your manager in writing before you begin the task so your performance is always objectively evaluated.
6. Don’t count on co-worker support – You think you have friends at the office, but if you share your feelings with them, they are likely to go tell your manager what you’ve said to earn brownie points for themselves. No one likes a difficult manager, but if a co-worker thinks he can exploit your pain to build better relations with the boss, things will get much more difficult for you.
7. Take action – Have a respectful but frank meeting with your difficult office manager and let her know that you are aware of the way she is treating you and that you will escalate the problem as far over her head as necessary in order to diffuse the tension and resolve the issues. This might not help in a small, family style business, but in typical company, her superiors will pressure her to develop a better management style. Meanwhile, start looking for a different job.
8. Don’t complain – Your predicament is one that millions of workers endure, but complaining about it will get you labeled as an unprofessional whiner and you will be a blame magnet for everything that goes wrong in your office.

Many work environments reflect the fact that life is not always fair. Use these 8 tips for working with a difficult office manager to help you respond constructively to your bad situation.

©2012 SimonStapleton.com. All Rights Reserved.

If you have a presentation or a proposal to share, then you will want to make sure it’s polished and practiced to perfection. You may have only One Chance to make a great impression! So here are four things I do every time a presentation is approaching.

The Four Ps of Presentations:

1. Prepare: I don’t need a word-by-word script; I do need to have a well-prepared presentation. My presentation is a story – it must have a start, beginning and an end, as well as having a purpose. I plan out the structure first, and ensure I work back from the ultimate goal, so that everything in the presentation leads up to that.
2. Practice: I need to practice. And practice. And practice. And practice. (Practice until it hurts!) You know, the most ardent and experience presenters still practice. It’s why they’re so good at it! I don’t practice until I know every word I want to say (in fact this is something I avoid so the presentation doesn’t sound too staged) But I make sure that I read my presentations out loud a number of times to develop effective inflections in my voice and a good rhythm.
3. Pronounce: To get my points across effectively, I need to speak very clearly. This can make or break my presentations. If I mumble or stutter (normally brought on because I am not well prepared or practiced) then I’ll lose the interest of my audience. I project my voice, speak slower (than in normal conversation) and fully pronounce every letter of every word.
4. Participate: The more I engage my audience, the more my presentation is memorable, and more to the point, the less I feel nervous. Participation has a remarkable impact; it helps my audience become part of the presentation and it also removes the invisible barrier between myself and the audience, so it feels less like a performance and more like a discussion.

I could add a fifth one – Planning, which is also crucial for me. When I have a presentation coming up, it’s essential that I plan my time to ensure I prepare and practice.

Good Luck in your own presentations!

©2012 SimonStapleton.com. All Rights Reserved.

Recruiters, managers and HR professionals receive a lot of resumes each day. Very little time is spent reviewing each resume so you need something which will make you stand out above the crowd. Here are ten tips which will make your resume pop.

1. Follow the instructions

When you read the request for applicants, are the recruiters asking for a resume and cover letter? Do you need to send your resume in a specific format? Are there specific words that you need to have in your cover letter to reassure the hiring professional that you have read their advertisement? The applicants which do not meet standards are not even considered.

2. Don’t be boring

When you read your resume, do you find that you are falling asleep? If you are falling asleep then you can be assured that the person reading it finds it boring. Focus on the things that will make your audience excited. Are there any words that can be used in the place of ‘responsible for cash handling procedures?’ Your resume is a reflection of yourself.

3. Use numbers

Tell the hiring professional what you have done. You want the recruiter or HR person to know exactly what they are getting. If your sales numbers increased by 300% or your customer base increased by 10%, write it in your resume. Let the manager know that you served over 200 customers a day as a bartender.

4. Use an original layout

Countless applicants use the resume template that MS Word offers. HR professionals and recruiters have seen it so many times that they can probably write these resumes in their sleep. If you do something different with the layout, you will set yourself apart from the crowd. Try placing your name vertically upon the page. Be different.

5. Talk about your strengths

Your resume is designed to tell people what you can do. Managers need to know about the strengths that you offer. If you are an excellent listener, talk about that. Do not be low key when you are writing your resume. Put your strengths right above your experience.

6. Read about copywriting

Copywriting is the art of using words to sell products. In this instance, you are the product. Learn some new tactics which will make your resume dynamic and appealing. There are plenty of copywriting manuals on the market.

7. Testimonials

If your manager has written a glowing recommendation, put it at the top of your resume above your contact information. This will make you stand out above the crowd, because you are immediately showing what you can give your prospective employer.

8. Proof, proof and proof again

Technical errors are sloppy and show that you are not paying attention to detail. Let your friends proof your resume. Read it over and over again to make sure that it places your best foot forward. Remember that spell check only catches those words which are misspelled, not the ones which are improperly used.

9. Use bullets and short phrases

Huge paragraphs turn people off. The recruiter does not want to read a tome, they want to get an idea about whether they should hire you. If they are having to slog through a narrative, chances are they will not read to the end. Use bullet points to draw attention to your work. Use short sentences to get your point across.

10. Tailor your resume

There were key words and phrases placed in the advertisement. The employer might be looking for an executive assistant. The employer might be searching for an administrative assistant. Tailor the words in your resume to meet the criteria specified in the advertisement. There should be no question about your abilities.

To make your resume pop, you want to show the employer that you care about the position that they are advertising. Use care in your words and tailor them to meet the expectations of the hiring professional. A resume that stands out is more likely to get the interview

©2012 SimonStapleton.com. All Rights Reserved.

Colleagues date.  It’s a statement of fact. Heck … it’s how I met my wife!

Although it’s something that is generally accepted by employers, there are still some things we should know to make sure it doesn’t cost us our job or income (and hey, we’ve just survived a recession, let’s not lose our jobs over a bad relationship at work…)

Over the last few months, I’ve been hearing from professionals who have experienced romantic relationships with colleagues to discover some tips to make sure that your date doesn’t spell disaster for your career. If you’re in a relationship (or getting hot under the collar and about to start one) then here’s some great advice, given by people who have been there and done it (and sometimes, regretted it…)

Have An Exit Strategy

OK, this isn’t normally considered a good start to a relationship! True enough, though, several of the people I talked to mentioned that they wish they had thought of how they would end it before they got in too deep.

Before you begin a deeper relationship with a colleague, it’s a good idea to consider how you will handle the situation if things come to a painful end. If need be, can you transfer somewhere else within the organization?

The main tip is to seriously consider how well your date (and yourself) can handle break-ups. Can you honestly describe both of you as emotionally mature? If not, then you should consider how a break up will lead you to behave, and what measures you will have to take to avoid fall-out.

Agree Rules

It’s often helpful to lay down some rules that you and your date will honor, whilst at work. These should be to protect both of your jobs and productivity. These rules could control how you will both arrive and leave the office, or how you will both react if you’re in a professional situation together. It’s well worth establishing do’s and don’ts to avoid embarrassment later.

Don’t Date a Superior/Subordinate

Most employers are cool about dating your professional equal, but when it comes to dating a superior (someone on a higher level than you in the organization) or a subordinate (someone on a lower level than you in the organization), employers often apply massive pressure to close the relationship. Why? Well, for both you and your date, there is a conflict of interest. That is, the interests of your romantic relationship are often directly opposed to your professional relationship. If your colleagues were to find out, you or your date could be accused of favoritism. Not just that, but should things go wrong there is a potential to be charged with some kind of sexual harassment suit. And perhaps the most likely problem that will occur is that you will both find it difficult to concentrate on your jobs and productivity will suffer.

Avoid Office Communication

Most companies and corporations reserve the right to access and read all forms of office communication, including e-mail. Romantic messages between you and your date are, therefore, in the corporate domain. Which can be embarrassing if you’re found out. Especially if it lands in the hands of unscrupulous people. If you really must communicate something personal to the person you’re seeing, use your cellular phone or, best of all, wait until office hours or over. You don’t want to be caught with your pants down, so to speak.

Don’t Bring It Into The Office

Whatever you do, don’t bring your relationship into the office. This includes discussing your relationship with other co-workers. Most importantly, don’t engage in public displays of affection! It’s unprofessional and cheesy, to be frank. It’s OK to let others know you’re dating after the relationship is ‘established’ (euphemistically termed, but in other words – once the lust has died down), but even then you should behave professionally at work.

On the flip-side, fighting with your date must be left outside the office doors. Even when tension is high, however, resist the urge to quarrel at work or you might be out of a job. This is especially true if your arguments get in the way of productivity.

Prepare for a Happy Ending

Perhaps I’ve painted a picture of doom and gloom for office romances. It’s often written in employee newsletters and minor news items about co-workers taking the plunge into marriage. It does happen. Perhaps it will for you, and good on you if it does. Do prepare for it though. Remember, you may have been covering up your relationship for months or even years. Be prepared for the shock (and maybe anger) from you colleagues when they find out you’ve been decieving them. And do check with company policy about spousal co-working – it’s normally OK but in some workplaces it is against the rules and it would require you to re-locate or find alternative employment. I’m no lawyer (nor do I pretend to be) so have somebody competent to see where you stand.

Summary

It should be simple: use common sense. But I know, to be honest, that when in a romantic relationship at the office, common sense can go right out of the window. However, I do hope that you see the value in the advice I have provided above!

And I must admit, this article has been written from the perspective of hindsight. Apart from the last piece of advice, I broke all the other rules myself when dating my wife over 10 years ago!

If you have any sound advice you would like to pass on to readers, then why not leave a comment in the box below?

©2012 SimonStapleton.com. All Rights Reserved.

I don’t know about you, but sometimes I look ahead at the challenges I face at work, and at home, and think about whether it’s really worth it. Finding the strength to overcome them isn’t easy, but it’s ALWAYS possible.

I mean, just over two years ago, I learned I had cancer. I had a two year old boy, my wife, and my family to think about. Even then, I wondered if I could really face and overcome it. The thought of death, or worse – a protracted death of pain and suffering, flashed through my eyes once or twice. Finding the courage to overcome those thoughts and focus on recovery and providing for my family was tough; yet I found it, because I just couldn’t let an illness beat me and take me away from my family. The strength to face my challenges came from an overriding need to avoid my family facing an even greater one. Once I faced it, and then overcame it, my life changed around so much for the better.

When I’m under pressure, now, I think back to those days and remember how maintaining a perspective on the bigger picture, and by understanding that conquering a challenge now can result in amazing opportunity later, it becomes a huge source of strength for me.

I saw something on YouTube today which focused my views on this once again. It made me think (as it will you) about what we consider as a real tough challenge, and how it can be overcome – not just to survive – but to continue to inspire countless others to do the same.

I found this video by Nick Vujicic – a guy who WILL give you something to think about, and most likely, provoke inspiration.

If this touched you as much as it did me then you can read more about Nick, and learn about how he amazes, inspires and transforms people in this book Life Without Limits: Inspiration for a Ridiculously Good Life or get the full DVD of the above intro, by clicking No Arms, No Legs, No Worries: Youth Version.

©2012 SimonStapleton.com. All Rights Reserved.

Here are ten essential interview tactics. They’re tried and tested!

Remember these next time you’re sat in the interview room – they could make the difference between the You’re Hired! and the You’re Outta Here!

1. Don’t sit down until invited, and when you do, sit with an upright posture. This helps you to appear attentive and engaged in the conversation. It also helps you breathe properly too.

2. Smile, most of the time. Don’t grin like the Joker; smile naturally! Smiling suggests that you’re relaxed, confident, and that you want to be there!

3. Return a firm handshake – but not too firm. Spraining the interviewers wrist is a bad start. A firm handshake shows strength of character. A limp-wristed handshake will leave a bad impression.

4. Relax… or appear to be relaxed. Breathe like you normally do. Easier said than done, when you’re nervous.

5. Try to remember to not sit with your arms crossed – this will suggest defensiveness and it could change the approach your interviewer takes towards you. It’s surprising how easy it is to forget, and cross your arms in an unnerving situation.

6. Gently gesticulate (move your hands to emphasize your words) as this helps interviewers remember what you say.

7. Keep up eye contact with interviewers but don’t stare! Some people find this a bit intense and can provoke a nervous response.

8. Speak clearly, and don’t rush your sentences. This will prevent your voice from raising its pitch and you appearing nervous.

9. Mirror your interviewer’s posture subtly as it demonstrates agreement. It’s a tactic that can help develop rapport.

10. Nod your head regularly to show agreement – gently though. Don’t overdo the nodding!

©2012 SimonStapleton.com. All Rights Reserved.

A List of Bitesized Quips…

Here’s a list of 99 things to do to become a high performer. If you regularly do all 99, then I’m sure you’ll be on the road to super-stardom…

1. Tell people what you are doing
2. Ask people what they are doing, and offer help
3. Enter recent achievements into your ‘external profile’ on LinkedIn and other social networking sites
4. Practice articulating your achievements
5. Communicate progress across your sphere of influence
6. Discuss failures, and what you did to recover
7. Describe what you have learned, frequently
8. Coach other people (with their permission)
9. Find a personal development coach
10. Always ensure that your goals and objectives are S.M.A.R.T. (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic and Time-bound)
11. Regularly review your projects and extract learning
12. Send polished updates
13. Join company activities and teams
14. Always respond to employee surveys
15. Focus on your performance objectives
16. Attend company parties and events
17. Praise fellow workers – it will be reciprocated
18. Instead of reporting problems, highlight solutions
19. Align to the truth, always
20. Offer to be a spokesperson for your organization in the press
21. If you compete in sports, offer your back to your organization – sponsorship
22. Get involved in focus groups in your organization
23. Prepare for one-to-one meetings in advance
24. Learn basic project management skills, and use them, if you don’t have that experience
25. If asked, tell people about the good things in your life, rather than what’s dragging you down
26. Have fun – and share the fun
27. Be upfront about the things that are acceptable to you, and the things that are not
28. Set standards, as well as conform to them
29. Take risks, and manage them
30. Be nice to support staff, e.g. Personal Assistants
31. Network, network, network
32. Press flesh, as well as the keyboard
33. Conduct working lunches
34. Keep meetings short, and stick to the agenda
35. Show how you make decisions
36. Make yourself accessible
37. Don’t be afraid to approach Execs
38. Be creative and go forward with your ideas
39. If your ideas are rebuffed, try again
40. Avoid email unless it’s necessary
41. Always follow-up
42. Give feedback, often
43. Ask for feedback, often
44. Assume authority, until told otherwise
45. Empower yourself – don’t wait for others to do it for you
46. Focus on your strengths
47. Don’t spend too much time worrying about your weaknesses
48. Smile
49. Roll your sleeves up
50. Don’t let your status confuse your usefulness
51. Use your role as a springboard, not a fence
52. If the need arises, bypass procedure
53. Stand up for what is right
54. Find sponsorship from someone senior
55. If you can, sponsor someone else’s development
56. Keep yourself fit and healthy
57. Dress accordingly – but not necessary with conformity
58. Avoid ‘groupthink’
59. Institute a ’10% stretch’ – each month set yourself a 10% higher target in something
60. Find role-models
61. Become a role-model yourself
62. Make many friends
63. Help people
64. Invite colleagues to social events
65. However you do it, remember people’s name
66. If conflict is necessary, don’t avoid it
67. Don’t wait to be asked to do something if it needs doing
68. Don’t work late, work smart
69. Never use excuses
70. Never accept excuses
71. Before you hit Send, read it again
72. Sell, don’t tell (if you don’t have to)
73. Share the joy and fruits of success
74. Share your knowledge, don’t withhold it
75. Be different
76. Support a worthy cause, or create one
77. Know how you spend your time
78. Know that your time is precious
79. Appreciate that other people’s time is precious
80. If in doubt, ask
81. Learn how to forget status, eventually
82. Lead from the back, as well as the front
83. If you really must blame, then blame yourself
84. Hold other people to account
85. Read about something outside of your core interests
86. Always be a jobhunter, even within your current employer
87. Change jobs frequently, even within your current employer
88. Organize your workspace at least once a week
89. Create an opportunity for a colleague; expect nothing in return
90. Never take No as a bad answer – it’s Maybe you shouldn’t accept
91. Make sure your body is running on a full tank – don’t work hungry or thirsty
92. We have two ears and one mouth -  listen more than you speak
93. Don’t put anything off to tomorrow that can be done as well today
94. Remember that delegation is not abdication – true as delegate or delegator
95. Make sure the boundary conditions are clear, in whatever you’re doing (i.e. uncompromisable conditions or standards)
96. Don’t start working until you know what you have to achieve
97. Plan, but don’t over-plan – a plan should be S.M.A.R.T. too
98. Take frequent breaks – as often as you need to (and can do)
99. Remember, you’re not a super-hero – so don’t beat yourself up if you don’t behave like one

Do you have a hundredth…?

Then tell us your high performance tip by leaving a comment below!

©2012 SimonStapleton.com. All Rights Reserved.

If you don’t know what being ‘underemployed’ means then join the club because it’s an emerging term since the recession. Simply, it’s when you’re working in a job way below your pay-level, capability or capacity. Is this you?

Are You Underemployed?

If you have been forced to take a lower-level job, or have accepted a cut in hours, or possibly even a drop in salary to stay in work, then you are in the ranks of the Underemployed.

I probably don’t need to tell you how it happened though: as employers have come under financial strain through the recession, they cut costs which normally mean lay-offs and, more recently, cutting down the number of hours or pay they offer to their employees.

Tough, isn’t it?

Now I must come clean – I have written before about the subject of taking a lower-level job, and it’s still the only option for some people (see ‘Should You Take a Lower Level Job?‘)  I believe that the people who do the hard work, intelligently and diligently will regain balance in their job and salary when the economy is booming again. It’s a simple fact that the best people will move into the best sustainable jobs. I put sustainable in italics as we all know that, sometimes, idiots are often promoted out of a role. I don’t mean that!

Will the underemployed stay underemployed?

If I didn’t answer that question in my last paragraph, let me say this. When the economy picks up, and business begins to boom, then organizations need people to do work. All the automation in the world doesn’t change the fact that business is reliant on people. So when companies are ready to grow they will seek out good people in order to fill roles to help them do so. This should only be a temporary effect.

Has the employment landscape shifted?

Of course it has – employers have now seen the benefit of more frugal human resourcing, despite my last comment. So we should expect to see more temporary staff and greater use of outsourcing to freelancers. So the world has moved on to increased mobility of it’s labor pool. So don’t be surprised if the face of employment doesn’t go back to exactly how it was before.

Is there anything to learn?

Hell yeah! What I’ve learned is that we all need to keep growing, learning and developing ourselves – and to take responsibility for it. We can’t control the economy directly, but we can control our personal ‘value proposition’ to employers. If you want to take just one thing away from the last couple of years, look at how you made yourself attractive to your employer (I was going to add that I don’t mean in the physical sense, but if that’s how you earn your income then that wouldn’t be true!)

What can we do now?

I advise hanging in there and keep looking for a job – try a weekly job scan just like I discuss here in this post Who Said that the Top Jobs Weren’t Advertised on Job Sites? And I also recommend that you try to make the absolute most of your current job because you’re in there, you’ll spot promotion opportunities as they emerge, and you have an audience of people who will listen to your ideas, your experiences and plans. It’s much easier to find your dream job whilst you’re connected inside the organization where you want to work.

©2012 SimonStapleton.com. All Rights Reserved.

Well, actually, I did. But the world of jobhunting and recruitment is changing which ultimately gives us more choice. Let me show you what I mean…

I launched a product called JobGuerrilla last year to help jobhunters take control of their jobhunting campaign – as I believe that the best job you can indivually find is one you find yourself and even help create. I still believe that this is true. However, if you have looked on any quality job site lately, you might have noticed a growing number of highly paid, senior or even C-level (CIO, COO, CEO, etc) jobs posted there. This is a marked change from the recession days of 2009.

Don’t believe me? Enter ‘President’, ‘CIO’ or ‘COO’ into the job search box at the top of this page and see for yourself!

More and more senior roles are being advertised on job sites now, which is evidence that the economy can withstand new growth in the job market.

Your Regular Scan

Since last year, I have regularly scanned job sites to identify changes in the kind of roles being advertised. I like to do this not just because it helps me share information like this with you, but it also (selfishly) helps me identify any new jobs that might be suitable for me. Do you do this? Well if not, I thoroughly recommend you to regularly scan the job market, perhaps once a week or so. This will keep you in touch with the changes in the job market and it also helps you identify growth in certain industries or regions. And it takes only a few minutes too.

I added the job search box at the top of this page just for that reason. When you come back to my blog to check out an article, why not check what jobs are being advertised whilst you’re here?

Still, Personal Control is Best.

Although the shape of job postings is improving, I still believe there is nothing better than to take control myself. Jobs posted on these sites have still been through at least one phase of recruiting from the ‘hidden job market‘ – so they’re only there because they couldn’t be filled by guerrilla job hunters who are offered them first. I prefer to be one of these people. Do you?

The JobGuerrilla method shows you how to become one of these people who take control of their jobhunting campaign and develop job opportunities before they are advertised. This is becoming the new model for jobhunting. The great thing is, you can trial this new method for 60 days and if it doesn’t work for you for whatever reason, you can ask for your money back!

So I will sign off by saying Good Luck if you’re beginning your job search. The good news is, the outlook is improving. Use job sites to search for the roles you deserve, but if you want to find the very best jobs before they’re advertised, then try the JobGuerrilla method risk-free.

©2012 SimonStapleton.com. All Rights Reserved.

Your Performance Appraisal is a point in time where a) you’re assessed on how well you have done against objectives you have been set, as well as b) it being an opportunity for you and your manager to provide feedback to each other about your behaviors, skills and achievements during the review period. To maximize your Performance Appraisal score, you must achieve the objective measures set by your manager exactly as they were set.

I deliberately laid out my opening sentence into two pieces, ‘a’ and ‘b’. Because ‘a’ (in almost all cases of Performance Reviews) is where your score comes from. The assessment of the apsects of your performance described in ‘b’ are the more subjective, woolly measures that are almost impossible to score, so they are generally aspects of your soft-skill development that you and your manager will work on over time and are not graded (however, they are still important and have a great effect on the relationship between you.)

So the rule of thumb is if you want to maximize your score, then you need to ensure that you’ve done everything as specified in your objectives. Easy, right?

OK, so it’s not that simple, isn’t it? Well it isn’t if the objectives you agreed with your manager are not SMART.

That is, they are not Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic and Timebound.

• Specific – Objectives should specify what they want to achieve, and why.
• Measurable – You should be able to measure whether you are meeting the objectives or not.
• Achievable – Are the objectives you set, achievable and attainable?
• Realistic – Can you realistically achieve the objectives with the resources you have?
• Timebound – When do you want to achieve the set objectives?

Only when your objectives conform to these criteria does achieving them possible, let alone easy.

Just a side note: objectives don’t really serve their purpose (that is, to increase your capability, develop skills, and add to experience, as well as add value to your company) if they’re easy, do they? When objectives are tough – when they stretch you – do they encourage you to build these things I described here.

Each of these factors are critical (without one of them, the objective is actually impossible to achieve), although I think that the most important factors (in terms of a starting point) of a SMART objective are measurable and specific, i.e. that a target has been specified that can be measured. Let me illustrate with some examples.

Q: Which of these objectives are measurable and specific?

1. Obtain 3% market share of the mobile phone industry by 2004.
2. Increase sales 10% from 2003 – 2004.
3. Survive the hard times the business is currently in.
4. Grow overall business by 15% year on year for the next five years.
5. Increase brand awareness over 2 years.

A: Objectives 1, 2 and 4 are specific and measurable. Objective 5 is questionable – the measure of ‘brand awareness’ isn’t specific, and the amount of increase isn’t stated. Objective 3 is also not specific or has a measure (how is ‘survival’ measured, and over what period?)

Get the picture?

Once you have specific and measurable in your objective, it’s quite obvious what’s required. The other factors (achievable, realistic and timebound) are fleshed out from here. So if your objectives don’t specify exactly what is required, and how it is measured, then achieving them is quite frankly impossible!

Graded Results

Quite often, managers set a scale of graded results in order to allocate a score to your performance. What this does is to set targets for each grading. This will look something like this:

Say you have been set an objective to reduce the cost of errors when keying in data. Your manager wants to reward you on a scale.

0% – 2% error rate: 100% of performance score

2% – 5% error rate: 50% of performance score

5% – 10% error rate: 25% of performance score

10% or above error rate: 0% of performance score

When objectives are set using a scale of graded results, it is very clear what you are aiming for, and what the reward is. Providing you have the ability to control and influence the results, (and that it is clear how error rate is defined) then these are SMART objectives. Right?

Are your objectives SMART?

So to maximize your Performance Appraisal score, you have to know without any ambiguity what you need to do to achieve a maximum rating. So it comes down to the SMARTness of the objectives.

If they’re not, then will you know what to do to gain maximum results? The answer is certainly No.

So what will you do?

©2012 SimonStapleton.com. All Rights Reserved.

It’s not what you know, it isn’t even who you know, it’s WHO KNOWS YOU that counts today.

Why is that, quite often, we meet a successul/rich person who is, let’s just say, not as bright as ourselves? It could be luck? Were they born into a rich family? No – more often than not it is because the person under scrutiny is well connected with influential peers. Make sense?

Being well-connected is a massive strength.

If you’ve read my book ‘The 10 Habits of Highly Effective IT Professionals’ (hey – it’s a great read for non-IT people too, you can download it for free!) then you’ll know what I mean when I say ‘everybody is a resource’; strong and skillful personal networking is a clear success factor.

Our ability to build relationships continues to grow as one of those make or break skills in business. Web2.0 and social networking hasn’t taken that away (they have made it more important.)

So what’s involved in building a relationship? Let’s take a look at the stages:

1. Getting in front of people
2. Breaking the ice
3. Developing a basis of relatedness
4. Encouraging interest
5. Building credibility and trust
6. Following through
7. Keeping it alive

Each of these stages requires different skills and approach, but the general rule is to be yourself and put the effort in. Relationships grow as you put more focused effort into them. It has to be reciprocal, right? The stumbler, for most people, is in getting in front of people to start the whole process off. If you’re not a naturally outgoing person, this is even more acute. I haven’t always been skilled at this myself, but what I have discovered is that asking contacts for introductions to their contacts is far better than standing in the arena in a conference hoping to meet someone interesting. So much so that I don’t go to many conferences to make contacts, but instead grow my network virally. How do you do it?

This requires me to have developed skills in ‘breaking the ice’ and ‘developing a basis of relatedness’. Finding a reason to form a relationship with someone requires a bit of risk taking, which I manage by asking lots of questions. When I meet new people, I try to discover something about them that I can engage with and have a bonefeid reason to continue talking. More often than not, this is about being a parent or something about sports (or the plain fact that we have a mutual relationship with the person who introduced us); it doesn’t matter what the topic is about as long as it is interesting and builds rapport. What do you discuss?

Eventually, I will hit upon something that has genuine interest that is common between us, such as a business idea, previous employer, and then focus on that.

From that point, I like to develop the interest further by sharing news, blog posts or ideas with the contact. Or I invite my new contact to lunch or for coffee for an informal chat again, having found a number of things to discuss about our shared interest. This is important, as it’s often the 2nd meeting where a new relationship lives or dies. This is when people make a judgment as to whether we are interesting, or not.

Once a relationship has survived the first few encounters, we tend to make our mind up whether someone is credible and trustworthy before we start to reveal the meaty facts about ourselves and our business, or offer referrals and business opportunities. At this point, it’s important to be reliable. It’s also important, once again, to take a few risks by revealing a bit more information about ourselves and our personalities. This stage isn’t easy because we are opening ourselves up for further judgment. However, if a relationship is to develop, we must do this. Deep relationships stem from strong affiliation on political, business or social agendas, so if they differ wildly then it’s much better to identify them now and not be afraid to walk away.

Following through is then the aspect of a relationship that grows a strong relationship. I am not great at this, naturally, so it’s something that I have to work on and keep at the front of my mind. If we have agreed to call, then we must call (when we said we would). If we promised tickets to a game, then we must provide them! The follow through is the demonstration that the relationship is important to us. You wouldn’t keep a relationship going where you were let down, constantly, would you?

Finally, I like to keep relationships alive by getting in touch to share a bit of news, have a laugh, discuss the game at the weekend, etc. Not all contact points need to be about business. In fact, if it’s just about business then I find that relationships go stale very quickly. I find it helps to always have a question or two about my contact, to show that I am interested in them. Asking questions, I find, is a good way of showing that I care.

What comes of this?

As a relationship develops, your contact will elaborate their internal view of brand YOU. At each stage, he or she will form a perception of your interests, capabilities, experience, and agendas. Some of these will fit with their own. When your contacts are going about their business, their opportunities will possibly align to you and may cause your contact to position you as someone who can help them. The more they know about you, the greater the clarity on how you can be positioned, and therefore the more opportunities you will be exposed to. And if you multiply this by the number of people who know you, then the greater the number of opportunities will come your way.

It’s not what you know. It’s not who you know. It’s who KNOWS you (and not who is just acquainted with you!)

How to Master Relationship Building

As I suggest above, I am no expert in this field. There are aspects of my personality that make some of the stages of relationship building more difficult for me. This is why I found help. What I discovered is this excellent book: Masters of Networking: Building Relationships for Your Pocketbook and Soul by Ivan R Misner and Don Morgan. Why I think this book is great is because, despite what I have shared above, it told me that there are many things about building relationships that are important, but not obvious. I discovered that our appearance is, even in today’s society, the most important factor that sparks a relationship, or not. It also discusses the impact of confidence, which is often the biggest disabler for most people. The greatest lesson in this book is that networking is a continuous journey that never ends!

Buy this book now

©2012 SimonStapleton.com. All Rights Reserved.

If you perform Performance Appraisals with your team, then it’s likely you have needed to give someone ‘bad’ feedback. But did you follow through? Giving someone a bad review is not easy (it’s hellish!) but it’s also very necessary if we have the reviewees best interests at heart.

Have you ever had a bad review yourself? I don’t mean the review process itself was clumsy or mis-used, but I mean ‘bad’ in the sense that it didn’t give you good news? If you have, then try putting yourself in your manager’s shoes, and consider how they felt about giving it to you. Do you think they enjoyed it? In 99% of these situations, the answer is NO.

This is a big challenge for managers, do you agree?

Giving someone a ‘bad’ review is an arduous process. It’s definitely one of the hardest things to do in a manager’s life. It’s no surprise that some managers avoid it entirely.

Would you give one of your team a bad performance review?

So far, I’ve used the word BAD. And I have also put the word in ‘quotes’ too. Because, I don’t believe that giving another human being feedback that helps their development intrinsically bad. Do you?

The reason we might think it is bad is because it is difficult, and cause a painful emotional uprising.

It is human instinct to avoid pain. We avoid it consciously and sub-consciously. Pain isn’t just felt physically, it is also felt mentally, and it is the mental pain that is often the worst. Knowing we will inflict mental pain onto somebody else, especially if we care about them in the context of being a colleague, we will be tempted to avoid it! I have, have you?

But here’s the thing. By avoiding providing painful feedback during a performance appraisal, what are we doing? We’re creating the environment for our colleague’s undesirable behaviors to continue. If he/she feels no pain, then they won’t change. Change only really comes with pain.

Equally (and this is the hard bit) if we avoid giving the painful feedback, we’re avoiding agony for ourselves as the appraisers…

[What if they hate us? What if they cry? What if they resign and it looks bad on me? What if they sue?]

If we don’t go ahead with giving the feedback then we don’t gain experience and get better at it. We create a lose:lose situation. Who wants that?

So isn’t a ‘bad’ appraisal really a ‘good’ appraisal if it helps the appraisee understand the necessary behavioral changes they need to make? And the art of making it a GREAT appraisal is to learn how to help the appraisee cope with the information/feedback they receive, and know what to do with it.

It takes practise. Lots of it. And perhaps some coaching and mentorship – have you tried talking to someone who has ‘been there’ and ‘done that’ in this?

You could also try picking up a great book I discovered that shares some strategies, backed up with real test cases, in how to perform ‘great’ reviews, whether they’re grade A or grade F results. The book is How To Say It Performance Reviews: Phrases and Strategies for Painless and Productive Performance Reviews by Meryl Runion and Janelle Brittain. It also provides tips and insights into preparing an agenda, monitoring body language, and developing the right tone of voice. Why do I like this book? It is written by people who clearly understand the nature of the pain on both sides. It is supportive – it doesn’t tell us how to do the obvious, it shares insights into the psychology of the situations we face and how to find the best approach to ease the pain.

Will you be giving someone a ‘bad’ appraisal? Then this book might be just what you need to make it painless.

©2012 SimonStapleton.com. All Rights Reserved.

Could you use an extra hour in the day? Want to know how to create one? Here are 8 tips to materialize another 60 minutes in your day without too much compromise.Another 60 minutes in a day would mean you could get those smaller, more annoying jobs out of the way, right? Or maybe it could be used to spend a bit more time with the kids. If you want to find another hour in your day, I might just have a number of things for you to try.

1. Get out of bed 30 minutes earlier, and go to bed 30 minutes later – perhaps a real obvious one, but have you considered it? To be honest, this was a tough one for me. I like my bed. But I was surprised to find out how little I missed that extra hour. For me, going the full 30 minutes on either end of the day was too much a leap of peril, so I decided (to the mirth of my wife) to move it out by 10 minutes each day for 6 days.  I expect this felt more of a psycholigical victory than absolutely necessary, but it worked for me.
2. Listen to podcasts, instead of reading – I read a lot, and if you do too then you will find time to save by listening to podcasts of my favorite content. Have you tried podcasts yet? You will find that many of your favorite media outlets provide podcasts of their content in addition to text. (Shame on me – I don’t offer this on my site, yet). So instead I whack the podcast on my iPod and listen to it in the car or the train.
3. Check emails only twice a day – are you addicted to your email? Do you keep checking it over and over? Your addiction is sapping up LOTS of time. For one day, try checking your email just once mid-morning, and once mid-afternoon (or use a sensible downward adjustment for your job). Then, see how much time it saves! And you will find that your productivity hasn’t been negatively affected. If you’re similarly addicted to Twitter or Facebook (if you are, you join a cast of thousands!), then the same applies too.
4. Don’t watch so much TV – I wouldn’t say I have ever been a TV addict, but it is fair to say I used to watch too much. I would often let the TV schedule rule my own. I guess with Tivo and YouTube, we can choose when to watch during more convenient and abundant time. But cutting out watching many of the shows that were ‘on the fringe’ of my interest has saved bags of time, and I don’t miss them at all. I watch less than 5 hours a week now, rather than the 25 hours + I used to!
5. Walk to work – (hey, wasn’t this about saving time?) Ah yes, walking to work can save lots of time, if you work out in the gym. If you walk for 30-60 mins to work then you don’t need to spend that time working out. The net benefit is saved time (and quite possibly, saved money from not using the gym). Similarly, if you own a dog you could take a more strenuous walk with the pooch rather than going to the gym seperately.
6. Plan your day – those who fail to plan, plan to fail – the old saying goes. But some simple planning can also save you lots of time. When I say planning, perhaps preparation is a better word. Preparing for tasks and activities in advance, perhaps the day before or during a quiet moment, means that the planned time is spent on the task itself, not the preamble. When I take this approach, I find that tasks are completed in the time I allowed, without having to steel time from other activities which has a knock-on effect of eventually eating into my own time!
7. Don’t aim for ‘perfect’ – This isn’t the same as ‘accept sloppy work’, but instead, accept that not everything has to be perfect to get the job done. Especially when writing documents and reports, content is superior to style. The other thing is that your ‘perfect’ isn’t always the same as the next guy’s. If you normally set a high standard, then perhaps your ‘perfect’ is just a stage too far for someone else. A powerful way of getting over this is to product a ‘draft’. Your draft is an imperfect product, purposefully. A draft can be reviewed by everyone, and then only the very necessary points of perfection need be added.
8. Avoid busy places at peak times – sounds obvious, right, but why are the busy places like that at peak times? Because those folks don’t understand this too! Sometimes, convenience is as such (convenience, to me, isn’t standing in long lines). Try to do your grocery shopping and activities like that when everyone else is watching their favorite show! You have Tivo, right?

Do you have any tips on saving time, without too much pain?

©2012 SimonStapleton.com. All Rights Reserved.

Hurry! You can get a whopping $39.93 off an annual subscription of the popular magazine Fast Company – normally priced at $49.90 per year.

This is one of my favorite magazines on the news stand. It is written for the forward thinking people and innovative pioneers who are challenging normal business conventions and shaping the business world.

Fast Company showcases the individuals and companies who impact the world through creative ingenuity. It has a unique focus on innovation, design and sustainability not found in print anywhere else. It’s closest rival is Entrepreneur magazine, yet Fast Company appeals to the more dynamic crowd.

It’s freshness is what really appeals to me. You won’t find many mughsots of folks in neckties here, unless they’re politicians!

If you’re a fast mover in your company, then act fast. Take advantage of this huge discount whilst it lasts.

Only $9.97 for a whole year’s enjoyment – Buy Now.

FACT: Fast Company is printed on 100% recycled paper, and is dedicated to the preservation of the environment and makes sustainability part of its core mission.

You Could Also Try…

Entrepreneur Magazine annual subscription. Save $47.91 (was $59.88)

Buy Now for just $11.97

©2012 SimonStapleton.com. All Rights Reserved.

People say the dumbest things, right? Especially in the workplace! The invasion of consultant-speak means we all have to sift our brains for the meaning of what should be a simple statement of words. I don’t know about you, but I have had enough…

I recently decided to monitor myself for using bullshit language in everyday business. It surprised me how often I used it. I had to slap myself! Since I started, by contrast I’ve noticed how often colleagues and managers try to sound clever by using words and phrases that most lay-people don’t know the meaning of.

I’ve also discovered that I can still articulate myself effectively, and maybe even better. The truth is, corporate bullshit doesn’t really impress anyone, and is more likely to confuse people. Plus, the invasion of corporate bullshit also means that if somebody doesn’t understand what is being said, they’re often too embarrassed to ask, and they would rather allow the conversation to go on in ignorance.

The worst of it is that whilst writing this post, I am continually hitting the delete button to wipe out the very same bullshit that I am standing against! I hadn’t realized how habitual it is.

I wonder, though, if I am being too hard on the use of corporate speak. Is it just me in a mood, or are well all a little bit fed up of it?

I don’t think so. If you have seen the ‘Bullshit Bingo’ game you can play during business meetings, then you’ll know that there is a growing intolerance, and mockery, towards it (download your Bullshit Bingo card today!)

Here is a funny case. OK, it’s perhaps childish and silly, but it proves the point. Some years ago, a manager in the organization I was working in (I’ll call him Dave to avoid using his real name) liked to mop up corporate bullshit. If he heard a word that sounded clever, then he would use it too. Often completely out of context. Now me and my buddies decided to play a childish prank. We made up several words that had no meaning at all and began to drop them into conversation with this manager. Within a week, he was using these words too. To his embarrassment, he would use them with his boss, who happened to be the CEO. He fell foul when the CEO asked for clarity, and he couldn’t give it! (If you’re reading this, Dave, you know I have apologized many times over!)

I think enough is enough. When somebody uses corporate bullshit with you, then make a point in asking for the real meaning. Even if you really know what it meant by it. Why? Well what about the next guy who hears it? Will they understand? Will they ask? And what if the word of phrase being used is really misunderstood by the person using it? If it’s important to understand what is being said, don’t leave that to chance!

Can you sniff out the BS? Discover the real meaning behind those bullshit phrases in this very funny book: The Dictionary of Corporate Bullshit: An A to Z Lexicon of Empty, Enraging, and Just Plain Stupid Office Talk. It’s 192 pages of side-splitting humor on the everyday bullshit that has invaded our workplaces!

Buy Now: The Dictionary of Corporate Bullshit: An A to Z Lexicon of Empty, Enraging, and Just Plain Stupid Office Talk

©2012 SimonStapleton.com. All Rights Reserved.

Only a few years ago, the gossip in the workplace centered around the water-cooler; a meeting place where the latest news about colleagues and management-decisions were discussed and often bitched about. More recently, the water-cooler is becoming lonely. Social media is taking over as the gathering point for gossip. Has it for you?

If you don’t Facebook, you probably know someone who does. (Why don’t you Facebook?) Or maybe you prefer something more high-brow like LinkedIn. Social networking platforms enable you, your friends and your colleagues to relate to each other, provide support , argue – whatever you feel like talking about. It’s a gossipers paradise. You don’t even need to be in the same country, let alone floor of an office.

And why not? It’s fun! It’s an easy way of sharing your news and taking a quick break. We all need a break. Because of that, more and more people are using Facebook in the workplace. Do you?

Why do you use social networking whilst at work?

Sarah Perez shares the results of research conducted by Nucleus Research on the blog ReadWriteWeb. Their study tells us that 87% of the 237 people who responded admitted that their use of Facebook has nothing to do with their work, which resulted in 1.5% drop in their productivity. If this research is read by your boss, what would the reaction be? I expect that FACEBOOK.COM would be blocked right away… or maybe you’d accept a 1.5% pay cut? (Err… nah! Don’t think so)

Do you agree with the conclusion of this research? Does your Facebooking time result in less work?

Personally, I don’t agree. For many people, taking a break from work – even a few minutes – gives us time to sort the clutter in our heads and allows us to get focus and clarity on the job in hand. If you’re like me, a short-term distraction gives your inner-brain an opportunity to solve the problems your working on without you becoming tired or frustrated. I’d say my productivity increases, significantly.

In 2008, the conclusion that Facebook reduced employee productivity was also being challenged by Goldsmith College in London, UK (as reported by the Telegraph newspaper). The research discovered that most of the 1,700 workers surveyed felt more productive after an ‘e-break’ (using the Internet) than they did following a traditional kind of break.

Sarah Perez also shares research performed by the University of Melbourne which confirms this view. The research concludes that people who take short breaks are, in fact, 9% more productive. Those are not just Facebook breaks, but any kind of break.

At least with a Facebook break, we remain at our desk and contactable…

Where it Went Wrong… (an example)

Did you see this story?

“Teenage office worker (Kimberley Swann) sacked for moaning on Facebook about her ‘totally boring’ job”.

To summarize the story: Kimberley Swann added comments to her Facebook profile that she was bored in her job. She didn’t mention her company name in the updates, but those who know her will guess who she is referring to. Her ‘mistake’ was that her boss was also one of her Facebook friends, so he read the comments, got pissed off, and gave her the boot.

Do you think this is fair?

If she had said that at the water cooler, would Kimberley have been treated the same way?

The two sides of this debate are a) employers don’t want their reputation damaged in the public eye, b) employees want to share views on their life (of which work is a significant aspect of) with friends in a private forum.

So doesn’t the debate center on what is ‘public’ and what is ‘private’? In the case of Facebook, you actually have to be a ‘friend’ of someone to see their updates, which requires mutual consent. In the case of other platforms like Twitter, you can follow the updates of anyone you like, providing they don’t block you or mark their updates as private. So is it reasonable to claim that anything you write as an update to your Facebook profile is ‘private’ and therefore confidential?

It’s a grey area. How does your employer know how selective you are about who you make friends with online? Employers are bound to take the side of caution. Still, does it make it fair to restrict what an employee says in a private forum, no matter who is a member of it? I think it is unfair – damned unfair – but I don’t make the rules.

Until social networking becomes accepted as the norm by employers (which is an inevitability), should we exercise some restraint if we want to avoid any kind of recrimination, regardless if we think this is right or not?

My advice – use common sense. If you must bitch, make sure there isn’t anyone connected to you who will be offended. Yeah this is really boring but if it’s my livelihood at stake I’d rather make sure that wasn’t under threat.

The other thing I suggest you do is to find out if your organization has policies that specifically govern your use of social media. You could simply ask your boss what the deal is with commenting on Facebook.

Organizations must begin to treat its staff like responsible adults.

Contribute to the Debate

Do you think Kimberley Swann faced rough justice? Or was she just being naive? And do you think that your use of Facebook at work is legitimate?

Share your view in two ways:

1) Take the Facebook at Work survey to see how you compare with your peers. Results will be posted on 15 October 2009. Subscribe to the RSS feed to see them.
2) Leave a comment below and tell us your opinion

©2012 SimonStapleton.com. All Rights Reserved.

Your boss hates you – what should you do?

This is a common problem, I’ve discovered, when checking back through the many emails where I have been asked that very question. When you find yourself in this position, is it a lost cause?

I don’t think so, and here is what to do about it.

First of all, it’s vital that (from this point forward) you keep an open mind. For two reasons:

1. If you have asked yourself the above question, then you must care about fixing the problem. If you didn’t, then you’d have consigned it to the ‘don’t give a crap’ box and moved onto some other challenge. So to fix the problem, you must consider opportunities to fix it before dismissing them outright.
2. There is a chance that your boss doesn’t hate you, in fact, but rather that’s how you have interpreted his/her actions and behaviors towards you. To solve the problem, it’s crucial that you dump any baggage you have first.

If you haven’t yet read my posts ‘5 Reasons Why Your Boss Hates You ‘ and ‘The ‘mystery’ boss: why your bosses behavior may occasionally look strange ‘ then do so now, and then come back to this post. They provide you with great insights into the mind of the typical boss, and possibly suggest why you might be thinking your boss hates you.

Do you recognize any of the ‘crazy behaviors’ that you thought could be hatred towards you, but are possibly more benign? Or perhaps you did discover a reason why your boss thinks you’re a dufus?

If you’re still unclear as to why you suffer a sour relationship with your boss, then now is the time to find out. The best way forward is to understand what problems need to be fixed, and how they should be fixed.

I should just say that I’ve known some people to try to go around whatever problem there might be – most of the time not knowing what the problem is. What tends to happen is that they turn into a kiss-ass. In order to gain new found favor with their boss, they engage in a sickly-sweet charm offensive. You have probably seen other people do this too… or maybe even engaged in it yourself. The effect is often successful, but temporary. When two people don’t deal with their problems (just like in marriage I guess) then any phase of reconciliation is cut short when the problem re-surfaces. And when you don’t know what that problem is, then you’re doomed to repeat it.

So here’s the deal: you’ve got to deal with the source of the bad blood between you and your boss directly.

Don't Give Up!

What If You Don’t Know the Source of the Problem?

What I’ve discovered is that I was most effective when I opened up the discussion with a question about the relationship. It’s about getting on the front foot by creating an opportunity for your boss to provide some feedback. I would ask something like “I’ve noticed that we haven’t agreed on things lately; am I letting you down in any way?” This question isn’t a confession, or an admission of guilt – it’s an avenue for your boss to open up to discuss the problem. This may be the magical question that brings out the source of the problem.

Failing that, I’ve also learned that an outright confrontation works too – but not an aggressive one. If I’ve had problems with my boss that I couldn’t fathom, I have found an opportunity to make an approach on neutral ground, such as the car park or cafe, and state that I have sensed a problem and that I would like to work it out.

Sometimes, this process takes a while. You see, in uncomfortable situations, people often lie. They lie to get out of the situation. Don’t take this personally, but don’t give up too.

So what you might find is that you only discover a part of the problem, or a symptom of the problem. What this means is that you will have to rectify the disclosed issue first (and prove you are serious about rectifying the relationship with your boss) and keep working at the relationship until all the problems have been heard.

The last resort concerns the fact that your boss has a duty to you to provide you with feedback on your performance and treat you fairly as they do their other subordinates. Not only is this a typical organizational policy, but in most countries it is law.

If you notice that your bosses actions look unfair, then you should ask why you were treated unfairly. This is a right you can be expected to exercise, and you should also expect to be given a straight answer

If you’re still not satisfied, then the only way forward is to approach your HR department, or if your organization doesn’t have a HR department, approach your bosses superior and explain the steps you have taken so far to attempt a reconciliation.

When You Know What the Problem Is…

This is a great situation to be in. The ball is in your court, and you should have a specific action to complete or behavior/personal trait you need to change.

The best approach is to take action, without delay. Your response demonstrates how serious you take the rectification. Slouching now will look bad on you, and possibly confirm to your boss why he/she developed bad feelings towards you in the first place.

Next important step is to provide regular updates to rectification activities, in person if you can. If the problem is behavioral then you will need to ask for feedback on the behavior. This is a good excuse to continue building your relationship. Don’t get defensive if the feedback doesn’t tell you that the problem has completely gone, but rather ask for advice on how to continue with the change.

If the source of the problem is personal then this is less straight forward. I once knew a guy who had major body-odor. Bluntly, he stank. His boss really didn’t like this, and made it personal. The relationship turned very sour… but his boss didn’t tell him what irked him because it was embarrassing. Eventually, the truth came out. The smelly guy did change his personal hygiene and the source of the problem went away.

History, and Baggage

I’ve mentioned so far that in order to reconcile with your boss, you need to lose your baggage. Once you’ve turned the corner and you’re dealing with the problems, this needs to persevere.

Truth is, you won’t really lose the baggage. Neither will your boss. The road to reconciliation is a long one, especially if nasty things were said or done before – folk don’t forget that.

Take the example above – the smelly chap – he didn’t just get over that. His experience was painfully embarrassing, and it took a while for him to get over that. Equally, the experience was painful for his boss. His boss wasn’t proud that he discriminated his smelly subordinate, and was also embarrassed by his behaviors. This wasn’t forgotten overnight.

Don't Pick the Scab! Let it Heal!

Those initial days and weeks will be awkward, as you and your boss try to forget (and fail in the early days). It’s much like a scab on your skin: it’s easily opened up and it takes real guts and determination not to pick at it, no matter how frickin’ itchy it is.

Remember These Things…

• Unless you initiate a discussion to learn what the source of the problem is, then you won’t resolve it. This is where the open-mind comes in – get the conversation going with your boss without carrying any emotional baggage with you, and don’t assume anything. The early days of this process is shaky, and both you and your boss can easily read the wrong thing from what’s said.
• You’ll also be hearing the voices in your head and applying listening filters to the conversations with your boss. Most people want to hear the worst, because it confirms what they already knew and tells them ‘they were right’. It takes courage, but switch those voices off!
• When you’re getting the feedback from your boss, don’t be defensive! If you start defending your position on problems of the past, you’ll close down the conversation. Even if you believe your boss to be wrong, don’t fight back or you won’t rectify the situation.
• Avoid caffeine and nicotine before the conversations with your boss. Being hyper-stimulated isn’t going to help. If you’re buzzing, you’ll appear nervous or distracted.
• Don’t use email. Period. Email is not an appropriate communication channel for dealing with relationship problems. Using the phone is OK, but discussing matters in person always works far better because it lets your body language communicate your desire to resolve the problem.
• When approaching your boss to talk, do it with a non-aggressive stance and don’t invade personal space – this is particularly important if you are tall (like myself, I am 6’4″).
• When faced with being forced to deal with problems that are painful, people can sometimes run for cover. So it’s got to be done at a pace that is not threatening or too painful – and this applies to you AND your boss.

Have You Had a Bad Relationship With Your Boss?

What was your story, and how did you rectify the situaiton? Have you got wisdom to share with us?

©2012 SimonStapleton.com. All Rights Reserved.

A leader has five sources of power, and each has its place. Using power wrongly often means that leader’s lose their influence (and then their followers). How should the balance be struck?

How often do you tell, and when do you sell? A leader with authority has the option to do both, but each is a path with widely different consequences.

When we tell (instruct using Positional Power), we give an instruction that must be followed without question (God damn it!) Followers are not consulted, but specifically directed without giving them their own opinion on how to achieve the desired outcome. The advantage of this path is that the desired outcome tends to happen quickly. The downside of this tactic is that it often undermines followers and disengenders them. What often follows, a little later, is a reduction in respect and loyalty.

When we sell (persuade using Personal Power), however, we give followers a choice. They’re not required to achieve an outcome in the manner we suggest, but make their own mind up. The advantage of this path is that the relationship between leader and follower is enhanced – trust and respect grows. Followers gain a learning experience. The downside of this tactic is that it often takes too long for the desired outcome to realize, and sometimes the result is total failure.

It’s a fine line to tread – a leader must use either tactic. It requires experience, judgment and insight. I believe there is a rule of thumb to employ which can guide us in which path to take:

If a leader’s assessment of followers is such that followers are not motivated enough to achieve the desired outcome by themselves, they must TELL (instruct). If followers are motivated to achieve the result off their own bat, then they must SELL (persuade).

In a nutshell, to make the best decision on what basis of power to employ, we must assess if the short-term goal is more important than a dip in our followers’ confidence and motivation, and our own position of influence. Using Personal Power generally had the most sustainable leadership outcome.

Need to know more?

Check out this great paper available on HBS Working Knowledge – Authority versus Persuasion.

©2012 SimonStapleton.com. All Rights Reserved.

We all want enjoyable, lucrative and progressive work, right? So how should we go about finding that kind of work?

You know, I admire people who take a job and then leave shortly afterwards because the job turns out to be way different from the one they applied for. It’s a huge risk, but if a job is going to make one miserable, or to a disadvantage, why continue with it? Journeymen can pay a huge penalty for this behaviour – if they repeatedly move from job to job until they find a sweet-spot then they ultimately find getting any job difficult. What’s needed is a tried and tested method of finding a great job before one even enters the workplace, without wasting the time and cost of enduring long recruitment processes. Both employees and employers welcome such a thing, right?

It’s the advent of Web2.0 tools that now makes such a thing possible.

Have you heard of the ‘hidden job market’? It’s exactly as it sounds – jobs that aren’t advertised. This is because they don’t exist yet, or are in the formative stages of being defined. It’s the people who can search this market who are in the position to influence the shape of jobs to their own needs and desires. In other words, they help create their dream jobs, rather than walk into a job that has been defined by someone else.

Web2.0 tools enable us to search this hidden job market by building relationships with potential employers and identifying job opportunities as they emerge. It’s a matter of getting yourself on their radar and building trust and credibility upfront. Business networking sites such as LinkedIn provides us all with the facilities to connect, engage and nurture a relationship with people within organizations that we want to work in, and it’s scalable and repeatable. Never before was such a thing possible at this magnitude.

Once relationships have been initiated, it’s now possible to provide demonstrable evidence of your potential by building authority in your subject area, using the Web2.0 tools. For example, LinkedIn Answers is a great platform for showing others your dominance of your subject, and be recognized for it.

The Hidden Job Market is there – if you look for it!

©2012 SimonStapleton.com. All Rights Reserved.

Do you know how to distinguish between job ads/offers that will bring you genuine income from those run by sheisters who will take what little cash you have left off you? Here are some tips to help you. (And check out my recommendations for 2 superb books that share genuine home-based business ideas and guidance, at the end of this post…)

In tough economic times where unemployment is on the rise, there grows a population ever more desperate people to earn an income to keep themselves and their families in food and shoes, and with them, comes unscrupulous blockheads that try to rip them off.

Actually, they’re not blockheads at all. Most of the scammers that prey on desperate people are intelligent, creative people who have chosen the dark side of the force.

If I can help just one person avoid being ripped off, this article serves its purpose.

Most of the common scams you’ll find on the web today involve an offer of easy work with high pay, yet you need no skills or experience to do the work. Work like that is typically one of two types:

1. Work that no rational person would ever do – dangerous, unethical or distasteful jobs like a naked janitor in a high-security jail, or a food taster for Osama bin Laden.
2. Work that isn’t work, just a reason to get money from you – the job is fake and offered to get some upfront cash from you

OK – I assume that you would spot which jobs fall into category 1, yes!

Jobs in category 2 are often just as easy to identifiy too. As I said, these jobs are often listed as lucrative, but you don’t need experience and skills, and you can work from home. Sounds great, huh? But these ‘jobs’ come to you with a ‘registration fee’ or some kind of upfront payment. It’s this money that the scammers want from you.

Some of these jobs, instead, require you to buy raw materials from the scammers to produce a physical product and then sell back to them. Great! But of course, their ‘quality control’ rejects your product, no matter how great it is.

You might have seen some ‘data entry’ jobs advertised. These are a scam too. The offers are designed to get you to impart some cash, and the work doesn’t materialize… well the cash certainly doesn’t. The same goes for the jobs where ‘all you have to do is post links on Google’.

There is a ‘filter’ I want you to develop in your mind, and it looks like this:

Why sell these amazing money-making schemes to us when they can keep them, and the money they generate, for themself?

If the ‘systems’ and ‘jobs’ that so many people are telling us about (and they want us to buy the information to learn how), are so lucrative (those that say you can earn $45,067 in less than 5 days) then why don’t they keep them quiet and use them just for themself?

These people are not community-sprited and small-time philanthropists. That’s for sure!

If you’re still not convinced, maybe some simplified economic theory might help explain it.

Economic Theory: Perfect Competition

In economics, there is a theory called ‘Perfect Competition’ which I will explain by discussing carrot farmers. (Yes, carrot farmers) The thing about carrots is that there is very little to differentiate the carrots from one farmer to the next. A carrot, is well, a carrot. Not just that, but the practices used by one carrot farmer and the next are pretty much alike too. And then the raw materials are the same – carrot seeds, muck, water, sunshine and maybe some way of getting rid of the bugs.

So from any carrot farmer, you would expect the same product, the same farming practices, and the same raw materials. Once you know this, anyone can become a carrot farmer. The barrier to entry is just making sure you can get this stuff and some land to grow the carrots in. Demand will typically track supply, unless there is some kind of major disaster.

If one farmer decided to hike his price up, then he wouldn’t last long. Because the market (carrot eaters) can get carrots from other farmers at a lower price, then nobody would buy at his price.

This is perfect competition. No farmer can distinguish their product to allow a rise in price. The cost of a carrot will be very little above the production costs.

You might be wondering where I am going with this. Well here goes…

In the jobs where skills and experience are not required (just like the scammers say) then many, many people can provide the labor. The raw materials (your time, maybe a PC with an internet connection and some electricity) are available to most people too. Everyone, to draw a parallel, can grow these carrots. There is a massive labor pool willing and able to do these jobs. So…

… why would they pay so much? Surely they would pay just to cover your costs and a little bit more? If it was a genuine job, then they would pay little, and be honest about it. Because the ‘employer’ could gain such a massive labor force then they wouldn’t need to pay much at all. There is perfect competition for the jobs.

But they tell you that you can earn mega-bucks, don’t they?!

So walk away. It’s a scam. Leave well alone. Look for that janitor or food-taster job instead.

As Rachel Zupek quotes on the CNN Living blog :  if it seems too good to be true, it probably is.

Two great resources for genuine home-based businesses

1. Start & Run a Real Home-Based Business is a full-on practical guide that avoids the hype and is based on sound business practice, especially on the marketing side.

2. 450 Home Business Ideas is jam-packed full of inspirational business ideas to run from home and in your part-time.

Stay Tuned…

I’ll soon be discussing the things you can do that are genuine ways of supplementing your income. Subscribe to my RSS feed to find out when!

©2012 SimonStapleton.com. All Rights Reserved.

The route to success is often a tough one that involves hard work and sacrifice. I’ve proposed two general paths to wealth (a form of success) – guru, or entrepreneur. Both routes, as does all form of success, are built on mastering something. Mediocrity does not have a home here.

What does ‘Mastering’ mean?

Simple definition: you become the best you can possibly be in a skill or subject. Add to that: you are recognized for being the authority in it. Being a ‘Master’ (in the genderless context) means that you are known and valued for whatever you have become truly expert in.

Being a Master is relative, though. You don’t need to be the world’s #1 in trigonometry to be a Master in it. You’re a Master when there is little competition in your organizational context, and you are capable of delivering to the full requirements of the role. All successful organizations have a Master of Marketing, as indeed a Master of replenishing the vending machines.

Why is this critical for success?

If a colleague, leader, executive or indeed a follower or subordinate can go to someone else for better advice, service or knowledge, then they won’t go to you. That about sums it up. You may be given an opportunity to contribute to whatever is happening, but you won’t be recognized or rewarded as the person who made it happen.

The Master is the point person in a situation, and commands the resources (people, money, tools,etc) to create the desired outcome. Applying resources and observing their effect (with the full context of the situation known) aids learning, develops knowledge and becomes more confident – the Master becomes more Masterful.

As a Master, you’ve always a lot to learn

Masters are not the final product. They never will be, and that’s what makes them a Master in the first place. No, I haven’t gone crazy. Here’s what I mean. As a Master, you have such an acute awareness of what can be improved, developed and enhanced in your subject: there is still much to know. Do you think a Master brain surgeon has no ideas on what they can do to improve the practice of brain surgery, and their contribution to it? No. Of course they don’t.

A Master innovates and pushes boundaries, and this is what creates massive value, and therefore success, wealth, recognition, an abundance of sexual partners… whatever your poison.

You only need to Master ONE thing

Just one! You might have other interests you desire to develop and spend time doing, and you might even master those too. But all you need is just ONE thing that you’re the Master in, and your path to success is laid before you.

Stop spreading yourself so thin!

If you’re having to do many different things on many fronts, chances are you’re not developing your skills, knowledge and authority in a narrow-band. Hey! You’re a Jack-of-all-trades-master-at-none! Guess what? You’ve slipped into the domain of mediocrity without knowing it. You’re easily replaceable once the work dies down a bit.

You don’t want that do you?

It is impossible to develop future success this way: the value you add when working like that is temporary and subjective. This happens to the greatest of masters at times, but it isn’t their modus operandi.

Just for clarification…

Let me be clear that it is common and often desired to support and enable a public figurehead who appears to be the ‘go-to’ guy for something, yet you’re the one that really makes things happen. Is this success? Or are you a chump that is too afraid of the limelight?

This IS a successful tactic: in these situations, a figurehead has dependence on you, and should therefore pass on much of the fruits of success (if they didn’t, I guess you would walk), yet you don’t have to suffer the rollercoaster of being in the public eye.

Success, and how you measure it, is entirely down to how you define it. Only you’ll need to Master ONE thing to get there.

Are You a Master?

Have YOU mastered something? What has it meant to your career success? Share YOUR story!

©2012 SimonStapleton.com. All Rights Reserved.

The Recession has created massive competition for the fewer jobs that become available, and it’s graduates that are paying the price. Lack of experience in industry seems like an obvious reason why graduates are not offered job placements, but surprisingly, this is not the primary reason (according to a survey of 200 recruiting managers in the US, UK and South Africa).

I recently polled 200 recruiting managers for their opinions on why graduates don’t get jobs. I was amazed at the results – as you will be. Lack of experience IS NOT the main reason. Here are the TOP 5 reasons why:

1. Anti-social tendencies – according to the poll, anti-social tendency is one of the top 5 reasons why employers are not giving graduates a start to their career. One recruiting manager, ‘Big’ George Papadopoulos in London, UK, said that “… when I get a bunch of graduates together, it is often like being on the set of Jackass .” The opinion is that graduates have been so used to living without the constraints of organizational standards that their behaviors often conflict with corporate norms. This is a big risk for recruiting managers, and they would rather stay away. It wasn’t just behaviors; many respondents cited problems with dress standards, even in the more ‘liberal’ of organizations. Some mentioned ‘highly  inappropriate t-shirts’ and ‘shocking hairstyles’.

   What can be done? If you are a graduate currently struggling to gain employment, is it possible that you exhibit anti-social tendencies that might offend others? In a world of free-speech and liberal attitudes (for the most part) changing yourself to ‘conform’ might seem a backwards step but I wonder if trialling changes as an experiment would pay off? This is a personal thing, but take note what recruiting managers are saying.
   

2. New-skool vs old-skool – over 50% of recruting managers polled described situations where graduates could not integrate well into environments that could be described as ‘behind the times’ in some areas. In other words, those organizations who were not at the leading-edge of technology adoption, e.g. in the use of social networking. It was said by several respondents that ‘digital natives’ face big challenges when working inside an organization that is not as technically dynamic as that in their university.

   What can be done? If you’re a student who takes current technology trends for granted, then it’s possible that you will face organizations who haven’t caught up yet. This is the reality of the business world. In these instances, I think you have a choice whether to wait and find an organization that does use digital technology in their core business, or join a lagging organization and use your influence and experiences to help them move on and adopt, at a risk to yourself that they will always be behind the times. This  is your choice.

3. Your mobility -  I was somewhat surprised by this one. Over 30% of respondents said that in these times, training and development budgets must yield the greatest value to their organizations. This should have always been the case, but in tought times,training budgets have been severely cut. The result: employers are reluctant to train and develop graduates who become increasingly mobile towards other employment. It’s a case of confidence (or lack of ) in graduates’ commitment.

   What can be done? If you’re a graduate who has dreams of hitting the big-time, then beware of the signals you may be giving away during your interviews. Employers want to see commitment for their training investment. You need to demonstrate that you are fully committed to your potential employer (in the mid-term at least) to avoid a rebuff.

4. Communication – the ‘language of youth’ has always been a step apart from that of the older generation. When this language is used in interviews, it often leads to confusion! It’s a simple fact that recruiters struggle to understand graduates who use this language. Marion, an IT recruitment manager in Fresno, CA, described a situation like this: “In an interview once, a graduate talked with such slang that I had to frequently ask for clarification about what was said, even on the simple stuff. It took me over 10 minutes to understand what subjects the graduate had studied. In an organization, this kind of language creates major communication gaps and would be entirely disfunctional. ‘

   What can be done? Perhaps a simple one to fix (perhaps not, but it’s something that can be learned). In interviews, use language that is simple and slang-free. The oldies won’t understand you otherwise. (OK, this maybe their problem in fact, but it’s your livelihood and future prospects you are putting on the line if you don’t!)

5. Commitment to yourself – this is perhaps a tough one where there is no easy solution. Respondents with many years of experience in employing graduates told of their stories where they had secured hot young recruits who could really hit the big time, only for the recruits to leave shortly afterwards once they realized the industry ‘wasn’t for them’. Truth is, many people turn away from the industry that they have studied in once they realize that it wasn’t what they expected. This was a problem in the 80s and 90s when IT graduates entered an industry that had moved on from the subjects they studied. There were not graduate courses on the Internet at that time.

   What can be done? My take on this is that this is the right thing to do. If you’re a graduate disengendered by the industry you had passion for as a student, then you’re much better to move on than prolong your misery. If you haven’t yet begun your career in your chosen subject, then I recommend that you take an internship to gain experience and learn about the industry to see if it suits you, or connect and network with people who are already working in the industry to learn what it is really like.

Heart-Break!

So many grads dreams have been shattered when they discovered that the employment opportunities they expected to come to THEM haven’t appeared. If jobs do materialize, they’re often the jobs that any Tom, Dick or Harriet can walk in off the street and begin. It is a heart-break!

I’ve found this really great book called College Grad Job Hunter: Insider Techniques and Tactics for Finding A Top-Paying Entry-level Job which is an expert guide on starting your career with the job you expected to land, before you graduated. It’s over 300 pages, and it’s jam-packed with the kind of advice I think adds value – not just the stuff you can view for free in blogs. The ‘insider techniques’ focus on building your resume, your job search and interviewing, and it’s all in-depth and throughly laid out.

Are YOU a Graduate Struggling to Find Employment?

Do you recognize any of these observations in yourself? Or maybe you don’t, and you’re STILL struggling to get that first job of your career. Leave a comment to tell us about YOUR story…

©2012 SimonStapleton.com. All Rights Reserved.

I need your help! Last year I raised over $1,000 for Cancer Research Charities, and this year I’d like to raise more funds.

You see, I became a cancer survivor myself last year – so I am grateful to these charities for all their hard (and often un-noticed) work; please help me help other people survive this disease too by taking just a few moments to write your own review of my blog on Technorati .

For every review written about this blog, I will donate $10 to Cancer Research charities on your behalf.

How To Contribute

It’s quite simple, and takes only a few minutes.

You can add your review by going to this page on the Technorati site: http://technorati.com/blogs/www.simonstapleton.com/wordpress

Add your review into the box (see image right) by typing a title for your review and then your thoughts about my blog in the Body section.

And please don’t forget to choose the Twitter This option too!

If you don’t have a Technorati login then you will be prompted to set one up which takes a matter of seconds.

The Money Raised

I will send the funds raised on the first day of each month to the Association for International Cancer Research (www.aicr.org.uk)

Please Help

Charities suffer big time during recession. Donations to charities are often the first things cut when household income comes under strain. Let me source the funds – all you need to do is write a review!

MANY THANKS in ADVANCE

Simon Stapleton

©2012 SimonStapleton.com. All Rights Reserved.