Kombis 2006

The 'Weakness' Question

2009-02-17T08:41:00.000-08:00

Recruiter Roundtable: The 'Weakness' Question
Yahoo! HotJobs, Yahoo! HotJobs

The Recruiter Roundtable is a monthly feature that collects career and job-seeking advice from a group of recruiting experts throughout the United States. The question we put before our panel this month is:

Being asked about one's own "biggest weaknesses" in a job interview is considered (by many job-seekers, at least) one of the worst interview questions. Do you ask candidates this, and how would you recommend candidates answer this question in a job interview without being phony?

Be Upfront

There are times when I ask job candidates this question. It's not that I want to nitpick or make people feel uncomfortable, but rather I want to see in which areas they feel they need to improve and what they are doing about it. In order to advance professionally, we all need to be able to honestly identify not just our strengths but also our weaknesses and how we can upgrade in these areas.

I recommend that job candidates be upfront during interviews. Don't say you have "no weaknesses" or "work too hard." Instead, tell hiring managers what you are working on improving and what you've done to build your skills in these areas.

One thing to keep in mind: If one of your weaknesses is directly related to the position and could potentially take you out of the running, the opportunity may not be right for you.
-- DeLynn Senna, executive director of North American permanent placement services, Robert Half International

Let the Job Description Guide You

First, make sure you truly understand the job duties before the interview starts. Match the job duties with your strengths. What is a strength you have that someone may consider as a weakness?

For example, if you apply to a sales job, your weakness could be "not quick to close": "I really take a lot of time to listen to a customer before I provide recommendations. A lot of sales people are quick to answer, but I spend time making sure I understand the customer's needs." Sales people need to be good listeners although they don't always come across that way.

Another example is if you applied to a very detail-oriented job, your weakness is you are a perfectionist. The hiring manager needs someone that pays close attention to the little things.

In summary, a weakness on one hand is a strength on the other.
-- Amanda Mertz, lead recruiter, Wells Fargo Home and Consumer Finance Group

Will It Match Your References?

The importance of this question is often not the candidate's answer per se, but whether or not the candidate's references respond in a similar manner. In short, it is a way for employers to assess the candidate's awareness of his or her own strengths and weaknesses.
-- Yves Lermusi, CEO, Checkster

Choose Wisely

This is definitely a popular question that we often ask, and a lot of our clients also like to include when interviewing candidates. While "weakness" is a harsh word, remember that nobody is perfect, and we all have areas of development that we need to work on.

Employers are cognizant of this and ask the question for two reasons -- first, to make sure your weakness isn't a skill they need someone to have mastery of immediately, and second, to see how you handle yourself under pressure and when asked tough questions.

We advise our candidates to be honest and focus on a weakness that is not one of the top three qualities required for the job. Also, be sure to describe how you've already taken steps and made strides in strengthening this skill, showing your ability and desire to constantly learn and grow.

-- Kathy Gans, Senior Vice President, Ajilon Professional Staffing

http://hotjobs.yahoo.com/jobseeker/tools/ept/printallept.html?post=526&eptTemplete=careerarticles

Keys to Success in 2009

2009-02-17T08:40:00.000-08:00

Recruiter Roundtable: Keys to Success in 2009
Yahoo! HotJobs, Yahoo! HotJobs

The Recruiter Roundtable is a monthly feature that collects career and job-seeking advice from a group of recruiting experts throughout the United States. The question we put before our panel this month is:

In light of the troubling economic climate and tightening job market, what is the one thing that job-seekers must do in order to be successful in landing a good job in 2009?

Exhaust All Options

Tell everyone you know about the type of position you are looking for, network online and at industry events, go on informational interviews, work with a recruiting firm, take on temporary assignments, and be flexible when meeting with prospective employers.

When developing your cover letter and resume, quantify the value of your contributions to previous employers, including how you helped cut costs, reduce inefficiencies or improve profitability. There are opportunities available, but job seekers will have to work harder to find them and cannot afford to leave even one stone unturned.
-- DeLynn Senna, executive director of North American permanent placement services, Robert Half International

Network With Smarts

Candidates must be building and strengthening their network -- ideally before it's needed. Find networking events to go find other like-minded individuals and connectors. Build your online presence through your social networks and be an active participant in the community. And remember to give more than take -- share your knowledge, help others be better, and invest time in building strong, long-lasting relationships. These are the relationships that could turn into future job leads.
-- Lindsay Olson, partner, Paradigm Staffing

Flexibility Is Key

Stay open to opportunities in new or related industries, companies of a different size, or in a different location; and be aware that with the advent of technology, a new location just may be your home office.

Be flexible. You may or may not have to travel a bit more, take a different title, or give up some of the perks you've had in the past to assume your new role. All things being equal, if you're flexible around these topics you're chances of getting hired increase considerably.
-- Cheryl Ferguson, recruiter, The Recruiter's Studio

Diversify and Listen

My advice is two-fold: Be ready to diversify the ways in which you communicate your experiences AND listen well.

First, make a laundry list, just for yourself, of all the projects, contributions, ideas, etc., from your last three positions. This is what's not on your resume. It jogs your memory about how you have differentiated yourself. You'll recall and distill examples of your success, and you'll be ready for more questions.

Second, listen closely to what the recruiter and/or hiring manager is asking you. They are looking for something very particular, whether the opportunity is leadership or entry-level. Walking someone through your resume or citing examples that they're not seeking could hinder your ability to seem specific to their job. You want to be very clear about your transferable skills and your willingness to adapt to their environment.
-- Ross Pasquale, recruiting/sourcing consultant, Monday Ventures

Tailor Your Resume

The most important thing that job seekers must do in 2009 to be successful is to diversify the content of their resumes based on the roles that they are applying for. For example, a job seeker may have worked in the past as a Java engineer, and also obtained project management along the way. However, a resume that is oriented strongly toward being a Java engineer has only a slight chance of being considered for a project-manager position.

For job seekers to increase their chances at success, they should shape their resumes to reflect relevant matching skills with the job posting(s) they are applying to. By doing so, a recruiter and/or hiring manager will more easily understand how a job seeker's past experiences apply to the posted role. This method increases the chance of being considered a strong candidate, receiving an interview, and, ultimately, a new position.
-- Joanna Samuels, senior account manager, GravityPeople

http://hotjobs.yahoo.com/jobseeker/tools/ept/printallept.html?post=621&eptTemplete=careerarticles

10 Hot Professions for 2009

2009-02-17T08:20:00.000-08:00

10 Hot Professions for 2009
Joy Victory, Payscale.com, Yahoo! HotJobs

As the global economy continues to falter, job prospects for 2009 are expected to slow. But if you're lucky enough to be in one of these top fields, your job future is still quite bright. Take a look at this list below and either thank your lucky stars that your job is already on it, or consider seeking the education and experience for the career that most interests you.

Auditor. With all of the economic upheaval, businesses are being watched more carefully than ever. "There is a lot of money flowing into companies right now due to the stimulus package," says Ron Mitchell, CEO and co-founder of GottaMentor, a career coaching service located in New York City. "And, we've all seen some issues with, 'Where is this money going to?'" He adds that auditors are mostly working for the big four [accounting firms] and also as internal auditors. Average Yearly Salary - $64,914

Career Counselor. More folks than usual are starting off the new year without a job in sight. How can the out-of-work find gainful employment? From outplacement agencies to government programs, career counselors and coaches will be very busy in 2009 helping make things easier. Mitchell encourages those seeking work to get professional help, saying, "Many individuals will need to completely re-engineer their careers. In order to do that, people need personalized guidance and feedback from an expert counselor." Average Yearly Salary - $54,426

Counselor. Besides their bank accounts, people's self-esteem and confidence are getting hit hard these days. "People's self worth is tied up in their job, so you have a huge identity crisis happening. Counseling and mental health services will be in high demand," says Mitchell. Guidance and some soul-searching can result in new and better careers for those in transition. Average Yearly Salary - $40,275

Public Relations Specialist. Rather than promoting a line of sparkly, new products or an exciting initiative, many public relations professionals will spend the upcoming year smoothing over unfortunate events. Mitchell predicts: "Being able to tell a story about major layoffs, reduced sales, and failed mergers, without causing a panic in the market, will become even more important." Average Yearly Salary - $44,334

Factor. A what? Didn't you study those in algebra? While this career is fairly foreign to most folks, now that bank loans are hard to come by, factoring allows small business to get funding based on their current accounts receivable -- the money they expect to have coming in. Factoring works well for retailers and other businesses that have big receivables. Mitchell explains that factoring is a legitimate source of funds in hard times. He says, "It's a huge business and, at a time when people can't get other types of lending, factors are skilled experts at lending against accounts receivables." Average Yearly Salary - $79,846

Health-Care Technician. You may know that nurses are in demand, but what about the folks they work with? "There's never enough of them, like radiology technicians, lab assistants, and home health aides. Health-care is the largest industry in the country, and in the more technical aspects of those careers we have a huge shortage of personnel," says Mitchell. Average Yearly Salary (Pharmacy Technician) - $32,531

Mechanical Engineer (and all engineering fields). With every passing year, more skilled-labor jobs are replaced by complex automation or robotics systems. For example, some hospitals have turned to "robotic pharmacies" to help dispense medication. It's the engineers who help build these automated systems, says Jim Turnquist, director of career services at Michigan Technological University in Houghton, Mich. "In the U.S. we only graduate 70,000 engineers per year, but we're going to need 100,000 per year. The demand is going to go way up." Average Yearly Salary - $71,490

Networking/System Administrator. Since almost all business transactions these days are done with the assistance of a vast computer network, the people who understand how to keep computer networks running smoothly are critically important -- and consequently, in high demand. "Network and system administrators maintain the company's infrastructure. People need people to fix and monitor their infrastructure, keep them updated," Mitchell says. Average Yearly Salary - $54,193

Nurse. The health-care field has been booming for a long time, and all signs indicate it will continue to do so, says Turnquist. He also says college students and people looking for a new job field would be wise to consider physical therapy and similar "exercise science" fields, since aging Baby Boomers will be looking for ways to remain active long into their later years. Average Yearly Salary (Registered Nurse) - $53,840

Software Designer/Developer. Companies from all sectors of the economy are looking for software engineers and programmers, says Turnquist. This is because society in general is becoming more tech-dependent -- just think of how rapidly cell phones change with each passing year -- requiring software developers that can stay abreast of all the changes. Average Yearly Salary - $72,070

Source: All salary data is from PayScale.com. The salaries listed are median, annual salaries for full-time workers with 5-8 years of experience and include any bonuses, commissions or profit sharing.

http://hotjobs.yahoo.com/jobseeker/tools/ept/printallept.html?post=633&eptTemplete=careerarticles

What's Your Job Interview IQ?

2009-02-17T08:18:00.000-08:00

What's Your Job Interview IQ?
C.J. Liu, PayScale.com, Yahoo! HotJobs

After networking, sending resumes, and waiting patiently by the phone, all your hard work has paid off with an invitation to interview. But, how do you prepare? What do you wear? And, how should you explain any layoffs or gaps in your resume?

Below is a quick quiz to test your interview savvy. Read through the following true-or-false statements to assess your Interview IQ.

1. If I prepare too much for an interview I will seem desperate. (True/False?)

False. There is nothing worse than an unprepared interviewee. Make sure you have done your homework about the organization and the job skills required before the interview. This will help when you're asked, "Why do you want to work here?" Plus, you can ask knowledgeable questions when your turn comes around.

2. Before the interview, put yourself in the interviewer's shoes to see things from their perspective.

True. Typically, interviewers are busy and easily distracted. Remember that you may be one of 10 people that they have talked to in the last five hours. Don't make them struggle to get answers out of you or make sense of your rambling replies.

3. Role-playing to prepare for typical interview questions is really important.

True. Practicing your responses to typical interview questions is paramount. Role-play with a friend and get feedback on how you come across. For example, if you say that you are really excited about the job but sound hesitant, you will not seem credible.

4. If you have reservations about your abilities or skills for the position you should tell the whole truth.

True/False. You should not tell a lie and say you have five years of experience when you really have two. Nor should you fully disclose your inadequacies. If you left your last job because you were fired, there's no need to bring that up. When the employer asks you about your biggest mistake, pick a less emotionally charged experience and emphasize what you learned from it.

5. A job interview is a one-direction conversation, like on a talk show.

False. Having a one-sided interview can be exhausting for both parties. Make sure to prepare at least 10 engaging and relevant questions to ask. Even better, have some questions about their favorite subject - themselves. An example is, "Tell me about your job and what you love about it?"

6. Interviewers are like dogs; they can smell my fear.

True. Interviewing is the quintessential example of dogs sniffing each other out. Like a dog, the interviewer will be trying to determine your overall confidence. Your body language indicates your level of self-esteem. Remember, a shaking leg or deer-in-headlights expression can matter more than how well you answer the questions.

7. The "real me" will shine through whether I'm dressed in pajamas or a suit.

False. Whether we like it or not, what we wear helps form a first impression. Before the interview, see if you can get some insider information on the dress code and whether it is more casual or formal. If you don't know, opt for formal. For women, remember it's about getting a job, not a date. Stay away from low cut or short anything.

8. Sending a thank you note is an important way of standing out.

True. Thank you notes are not only about good etiquette but self-marketing, too. How can a simple card help you seal the deal? Start by mentioning something you learned about your interviewer. You could say, "I really enjoyed our conversation about your first years at Boeing." Then, write a quick summary of the conversation and why you are perfect for the job.

9. Making demands for your ideal salary and vacation in the initial interview is a risky proposition.

True. While you are aching to know the starting salary and benefits right off the bat, it's a bit risky to ask these types of questions initially. Reserve negotiations on these matters until you have a job offer.

10. It doesn't matter if I'm five minutes late. Everyone runs late to interviews.

False. It's OK for your interviewer to be late, but the interviewee needs to be on time or 5-10 minutes early. Even if you have a good reason for being late, the interviewer will make assumptions about your level of organization and how you treat others. Plus, getting there early gives you time to compose yourself and shake off your coffee jitters.

C.J. Liu is a certified, professional coach who helps professionals define success on their own terms. C.J. offers?life, business, and career coaching and?can answer your questions at cjliu@mywholelife.net.

http://hotjobs.yahoo.com/jobseeker/tools/ept/printallept.html?post=636&eptTemplete=careerarticles

Keep Your Presentations Simple

2009-02-12T04:56:00.000-08:00

Keep Your Presentations Simple

by Stephen Boyd

When delivering a presentation, keep things simple. To help the audience remember what you say, focus on one idea for your listeners to take away. As you prepare your speech, keep in mind the one idea you want the audience to remember, such as your expertise that will help the client’s business. In a presentation I often deliver, “Be Present When You Are Present,” my main idea is to pay attention in a multi-tasking world.

Don’t take too long to get your message across to your audience. History supports the principle that audiences prefer short speeches. One of the greatest speeches of the 20th Century was John F. Kennedy’s 1960 Inaugural Address—only fourteen minutes long. In 1863, Abraham Lincoln’s obligatory two minutes became famous as the Gettysburg Address. Edward Everett, a well-known orator and a former Senator, presented the two-hour keynote address that day at the dedication of the Soldiers’ National Cemetery at Gettysburg. Everett wrote to President Lincoln after the event, “I should be glad if I could flatter myself that I came as near the central idea of the occasion in two hours as you did in two minutes.”

Less is usually more in delivering a presentation. Don’t overload the minds of your listeners with too many pieces of data. The audience won’t remember much, but if they feel you are giving them too much information they will tune you out and remember nothing.

Never use three words when you can say it in two. Leave out clichés, filler words, and hackneyed words such as “You know,” “OK,” and “All right.” Leave out phrases such as “Let me be honest/blunt/frank.” (Have you not been being honest before that point?) Speak in short sentences, short phrases, and short words. Word choice should be instantly clear to an audience. Make it a goal that every word will have impact in your speech. Use language that triggers specific action. Begin a sentence with “Here is what I want you to do as a result of my presentation…,” or, “Remember this one piece of information….”

Ask the introducer to keep your introduction brief; in fact, it is best to type out an introduction and give it to him or her to read. Include only vital information that qualifies you on your topic. Your life history is not necessary in the introduction.

Finally, don’t tell all you know about the subject. The content of your presentation should be from the overflow of your knowledge. Only say what’s necessary to fulfill your purpose. The content of your presentation should influence the audience to want to come back for more, and you should know more than you’ve given.

As communication professor and researcher Josh Boyd wrote, “In physics, power is defined as work divided by time. In other words, more work done in less time produces more power. In the same way, a speaker’s message is most powerful when he or she can deliver a lot of good material in a short amount of time.”

In a culture where time is in demand, a speech presented simply enhances the audience’s acceptance of the content. At the least, a simple approach will encourage the audience to pay attention to your message.

Sales Managers: Invest in the Best

2009-02-11T10:28:00.000-08:00

Sales Managers: Invest in the Best

Sales managers make a difference to your company every day in many ways.

They help top producers produce even more. They help high potential sales people develop into stars. They help the consistent, steady producers keep chugging away. They weed out the underperformers who can't make the grade and they help others to improve.

You would think that you'd want to pick the best sales managers you could find, give them the training they need and support them. But, in many companies, that simply doesn't happen.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics tells us that 2.2 million Americans have some kind of sales management job. They work in all kinds of settings, large and small, retail and business and industrial. The majority of them have three things in common.

They were promoted for the wrong reasons.

They received no training in supervisory or management skills.

They have people working for them. That means that if they sink instead of swim, they can take a whole sales team to the bottom with them.

It doesn't have to be this way. To change things, you need to pick people who have a shot at being successful managers, give them training in supervisory skills, and give them the support they need to grow and develop as managers.

Pick people who have a shot at being successful managers.

It's almost a cliché that top salespeople often make poor sales managers, yet that's exactly who many companies promote. Instead of looking at sales success alone consider the following.

Pick people who like helping others succeed. That's a big part of any manager's job. Select candidates who've gone out of their way to help others and seem to be good at it.

Pick people who are willing to talk to others about behavior and performance. This is a tough one.

Many salespeople have a strong need to be liked. In management that can be deadly. Select people you've seen deliver tough messages to their colleagues and customers without setting off a nuclear conflict.

Pick people who are willing to make decisions. You can't teach this. You can teach techniques to improve decision making, but your candidate needs to show up willing to make decisions and be held accountable for them.

Pick people who are credible. Almost all promotions to sales manager are from inside. That means that a person's reputation follows him or her. Part of that reputation involves sales skills.

I've found a difference between retail and industrial selling here. In industrial sales management, the manager spends less time with his or her salespeople than the retail sales manager, who works the floor and usually sells.

The difference is important when you're considering someone for promotion. In retail, you want a person who delights in helping others and who is also a great salesperson. That's because he or she is on the floor all the time. How the sales manager sells sets the example for everyone every day.

Pick people with integrity. This is another one of those things you can't teach, but it's essential. You have to be able to trust your managers. Their team members have to be able to trust them.

Pick people who like to learn. A good sales manager will always be learning. He or she will learn about technical matters, about sales techniques and about supervisory skills. That learning starts with training.

Give them training in supervisory skills.

Get a bunch of top company executives and ask them what they do to train their salespeople and the noise level in the room rockets upward as they describe one thing after another. Ask those same executives what they do to train their sales managers in management and the room goes silent.

Supervising salespeople is a distinct kind of work. To do it well, you have to shift your thinking from being an individual salesperson on a team to being the leader of the team. And you have to master some specific skills.

Help them understand their new role. New sales managers need to spend time clarifying their new role. As sales managers they are responsible for making goal through the group. As sales managers they are responsible for helping their people succeed and develop.

Help them develop skills necessary to talk to people about their behavior and performance. New sales managers need to learn the basic tools. They need to practice them in exercises before they go back on the job.

Help them identify good role models and possible mentors. Initial training should point out the importance of role models and mentors. It should help new sales managers identify good ones. And it should teach the new sales manager how to use them.

Help them put together their own development program. New sales managers will leave their first training with most of their learning still in front of them. Give them tools and connections that will help them learn on the job.

Give them the support they need to grow and develop.

Supervising others is an apprentice trade. You learn a small portion of it in classrooms and from books. You learn most of it from others and on the job.

Give your sales managers lots of feedback. Feedback is the key to improved performance. New sales managers, especially, need lots of feedback on their management work in the months immediately following promotion.

Help them connect with peers. Strong peer groups can help a new sales manager get advice, feedback and support.

Bring them back for frequent training during the transition period. My research says that it takes twelve to eighteen months for most new sales managers to settle in to their new role and their new job. During that time, training on analyzing performance issues and talking to people about performance can really help.

Sales managers don't just have an impact on the top line by increasing sales. They also have an impact on the bottom line by reducing turnover and keeping selling expenses under control. They're important you need to select, train and support them like the valuable assets they are.

This article first appeared in the Three Star Leadership Blog.

It is based on material in Wally's Working Supervisor Support Kit.

You may reprint or repost this article providing that the following conditions are met:
The article remains essentially unaltered.
Wally Bock is shown as the author.
The notice Copyright 2007 by Wally Bock or similar appears on the article.
Contact information for Wally is included with the article. You may refer readers to this Web site as a way to meet this requirement, or use the information on our contact page.

http://www.threestarleadership.com/articles/salesmanagers.htm

Career Development: 20 Tips for the Young

2009-02-11T10:24:00.000-08:00

Career Development: 20 Tips for the Young

After watching careers for almost forty years, I've got a clear idea of what you should do to build yours. Here's some advice if you're starting out.

1. Seek and use feedback. Feedback will turbocharge your career and put you on the path to continuous improvement.

2. Get help. You can't know it all yourself. Get help from mentors, friends, peers, books, classes and role models.

3. Seek out challenges. That's how you grow.

4. At some point you will fail. It will be painful. Instead of sitting in the ashes of your life and shaking your fist at the sky, pick yourself up, learn from what happened and keep going. Ask my mother's favorite question for all challenges: "What good can we make of this?"

5. Build on your strengths and help others build on their strengths. Figure out what you do both well and joyfully. Do the same for your team. Spend your time on developing and using strengths. Make weaknesses irrelevant.

6. Admit your mistakes, graciously. Forgive the mistakes others make. Figure out how to move on and learn from experience.

7. Say "Thank you." Write thank-you notes. Send thank-you emails. People will remember you.

8. Learn to write lucid memoranda. You can't communicate if you can't write.

9. Learn to make good presentations. In today's world this is a requirement. Learn to marshal the research. Learn to tell relevant stories.

10. Help your boss and your employer look good. That's part of your job and it pays dividends over the course of a career.

11. Learn to keep your mouth shut when it's important. Don't discuss sensitive issues or your customer's business on your cell phone in a public place. Don't gossip. Keep sensitive documents secure.

12. Clarify expectations until they are crystalline. Make sure you understand what your boss wants from you. Make sure the people who work with you understand what you want.

13. Fight for the important stuff and give in gracefully otherwise. There are very few things in business or in life that are worth messing up a relationship for.

14. Develop habits and checklists that help you get the routine work done routinely and well. You will develop a reputation for reliability.

15. You don't know when an opportunity to stand out from the crowd will appear. Read and study and listen so that you're ready when a big opportunity comes your way. Create learning programs for yourself.

16. Ambition can be a driving force but it needn't be obvious and self-serving. It certainly needn't be aggressive. Let others become known for their ambition while you build a reputation for excellence.

17. Keep your promises. Nothing can destroy a career faster or more thoroughly than a reputation as untrustworthy.

18. Every day identify the most important thing you need to do. Then do it.

19. Work hard. Some people succeed without working hard, but some people win the lottery, too. Very few people achieve meaningful and lasting success without working hard.

20. When in doubt about what to do, act like the person you want to become.

Remember that careers are built from the things you do every day. You're more likely to succeed in the long run if you take every opportunity to develop yourself, your skills, your friends, and your relationships. Good luck.

This article first appeared in the Three Star Leadership Blog.

It is based on material in Wally's Working Supervisor Support Kit.

You may reprint or repost this article providing that the following conditions are met:

The article remains essentially unaltered.

Wally Bock is shown as the author.
The notice Copyright 2007 by Wally Bock or similar appears on the article.

Contact information for Wally is included with the article. You may refer readers to this Web site as a way to meet this requirement, or use the information on our contact page.

http://www.threestarleadership.com/articles/careertipsforyoung.htm

Public Speaking:

2008-10-14T09:15:00.000-07:00

7 Secrets of Great Public Speakers -Article

By Ranju Kumar Published 01/19/2008

The major secret of great speakers is that they do not think about themselves during a talk. Great speakers prepare and practice before the big event and when the big event comes, they think about their audience.

At its core, public speaking is not about your image or ego. It is about communicating a message and that means connecting with an audience.

Here are seven ways of creating an experience that will wow audiences and make sure they come away with your message:

1. Respect Your Audience.This means you view your audience as your equals. You neither look down on them nor crawl before them in hopes of winning their approval. You make some effort to find out what information they already have. That way, you can offer a presentation that gives them something new and does not insult their intelligence.

2. Listen to the Audience. Communication is a two-way street. Even when you are the only one talking, your audience will communicate with you through facial expressions and body language. Listen to these communications, so that you can give the audience what they need. If you see a lot of confused looks, slow down, back up and repeat your last statement. If you see sleepy body language, speak up, use gestures and visual aids to inject energy into the room.

3. Maximize Learning. The most effective speeches cover enough material to be engaging, but not too much. Ideally, you should make three to five clear points, but never more than seven. Give an overview of the main points in your introduction and a recap of them in your conclusion. The rest of your material should be facts that accurately support those points. If you can state the main points concisely, your audience can learn them.

4. Speak Their Language.In most cases, the shortest, most direct words are the best. However, there are some situations that call for academic, technical or other jargon. Even in the most academic settings though, listeners appreciate easy to remember words and phrases. Unless you are a comedian with a very tolerant audience, absolutely avoid profane or crude language.

5. Make Them Comfortable.Make the audience stiff and unresponsive by memorizing your speech. As much as possible, speak as if you are having a conversation with a very comfortable friend about something you care about. That does not mean being loud and obnoxious: it means you capture the feeling of sharing something you are excited about. If you think your topic is not exciting, do some work to identify why it is important. This helps your audience feel comfortable with you and enthusiastic about your topic.

6. Show Them What You Are Talking About. Use high-quality visual aids to help drive your message home. It does not need to be complicated. For instance, a talk about the life of Benjamin Franklin would benefit from something as simple as his portrait. Other aids are PowerPoint slides with a minimum of text listing your main points or slides of art prints.

7. Be Honest. When you give a presentation, you are trying to change something about your audience like increase their knowledge, change their beliefs or habits and convince them to take a particular action. A great speaker does any or all of that by giving an ethical speech. That means you avoid plagiarism, falsehood or exaggeration. Even in a persuasive speech, you never try to force, coerce or deceive. What you want is to teach and convince with clean, logical argument and concrete evidence.

Connecting with an audience is an art with foundational rules like any other art. You have learned these seven methods in just a few minutes. You can devote a lifetime to mastering them and so become a truly great public speaker.

Article Source: http://www.discoveryarticles.com/articles/66872/1/Public-Speaking-7-Secrets-of-Great-Public-Speakers/Page1.html

How To Prepare A Professional Presentation Or Speech

2008-10-13T16:46:00.000-07:00

How To Prepare A Professional Presentation Or Speech

Submitted Friday, November 24, 2006

Submitted by: Jonathan Farrington

As with all things in life, the quality of the preparation affects the final outcome and this is certainly true when it comes to planning and preparing a presentation.

I have experimented with a number of methods over the years but I do believe that the simplest are usually the best.

The Collection:

Over a period of time think all round the subject and note down on a large sheet of paper or indeed several sheets, everything that comes into your head about the subject of your presentation. This is rather like a personal brain storming session and should be done roughly, in the order in which the thoughts occur; do not attempt to write a speech at this stage

The Central Theme:

This second method requires you to decide on the exact message you want to get across and writing it down in one simple sentence. Then you think all around the sentence, scribbling down the ideas as they come to you - this method is almost identical to ‘mind-mapping

Before selecting or rejecting any idea, it is important to decide:-

• Who are my audience?
• How much do they know already?
• How much time will I be allowed?

Having taken account of the answers to those three key questions, it should be possible to answer one further one -

• What do I want to say?

This is the stage at which you can decide your headings and sub-headings and put them into a logical order. Your structure then begins to take shape. Essentially you go back to the notes you made during the ‘ideas’ stage and select which ones you wish to use - and then put them in the right order.

Remember you probably will not have time to tell your audience all you know about your subject – after all this is not an ‘information dump’ Use only what is relevant and what can be dealt with in the time at your disposal – this may involve a ruthless reduction exercise.

It is suggested that if possible leave the speech, once written, for 24 hours. Then re-read and revise, removing any jargon or unnecessarily flowery phases or faulty reasoning.

The actual notes that you speak from can be the final draft of the speech but this will normally cause you to read most or all of the presentation and the audience will find this dull.

It is much better, therefore, to read the final draft and put it to one side. Then, without referring to it, write short, key-word notes or, if you are very experienced, headings only, on to numbered post-cards.(Numbering your cards will prove to be an invaluable exercise in the unlikely event you drop them half way through your presentation!)

You can now re-look at the final draft to check that you have included all the major ideas on the cards, but be careful, the chances are that if you forgot that idea when making out the cards, you will forget it when you make the presentation.

And Finally -Final Notes:

Unless you are a very good actor with a phenomenal memory, do not dispense with notes by memorising a speech ‘parrot-fashion’. Unless your audience are ornithologists, they do not want to listen to a parrot! Also, it is easy to lose your way when giving a memorised presentation and easier still to lose an audience.

Copyright © 2006 Jonathan Farrington. All rights reserved

Jonathan Farrington is the Managing Partner of The jfa Group http://www.thejfagroup.com. To find out more about the author, read his latest articles or to subscribe to his newsletter, visit: http://www.jonathanfarrington.com

You can now also read his weekly blog for dedicated sales professionals: http://www.thejfblogit.co.uk

5 Super Tips to Get Rid of Your Public Speaking Fear

2008-10-13T10:17:00.000-07:00

How to Overcome Public Speaking Anxiety or Fear
By Charles Wilson

I have seen many people around who most of the times hesitate to make a public speech. Many of the times it happens because those people really have fear in their minds for public speaking. I have personally experienced the feeling of inferiority or fear of not having much knowledge about the topic of speech. These are the major reasons for having public speaking fear. And after a lot of hard work and continuous practice I managed to overcome my public speaking fear. Here are my 5 super tips for you people who want to get rid of their public speaking fear.

1) Don't get scared to make mistakes: Yes when it comes to public speaking you are bound to make some minor or major mistakes. But it is the part and parcel of public speech. Don't be afraid of doing mistakes during your public speech. Only thing is that you should learn from your mistakes and try not to make those next time when you are presenting. Even if you make a mistake during your speech then don't get panic and try to remain calm and cool which will definitely help you to present yourself in a better way.

2) Be creative and select your topic which you are most passionate about: When you are going to present yourself in public speaking, it is the primary thing that the topic of the speech should be the one which you know very well and you have a real passion about that topic. Because when you are going to speak about that topic then your heart and mind will produce the most effective and most creative presentation you have ever presented. This is very important as you already are very confident and well knowledgeable about the subject and your audience will also take keen interest in your presentation.

3) Build a strong, positive attitude in yourself: When it comes to any kind of public speech it is mandatory that you should have the requisite confidence in yourself and you should have a s strong belief in your abilities. This will only come when you will look at yourself as a most knowledgeable and highly positive person in your life. So it is the most important factor in making your public speech successful and without any fear.

4) Practice in front of your mirror: This is the most successful idea behind making your public speech successful. This activity will really boost your confidence because you have already rehearsed what you want to speak in front of your audience. And this is the most successful technique which many well known speakers were using it. This is the most important confidence building method I have ever seen in my life. Believe me after 4-5 practice sessions in front of your home mirror; it will tremendously increase your confidence and belief in yourself.

5) Use props creatively during your presentation: This is truly confidence boosting method. You get enough time to calm your nerves and build confidence in yourself as you effectively use props during presentation. Using PowerPoint slides and other props gives your audience visual aid to make them comfortable with the topic and that can also increase the interest of your audience in the topic and most importantly it gives you enough time to prepare yourself with the next points to be delivered which also reduces the fear and nervousness in your mind.

By applying these simple tips you can easily overcome your public speaking fear and can confidently present yourself in front of your audience.

================================================================

Takeaways
Don't get scared to make mistakes
Be creative and select your topic which you are most passionate about
Build strong positive attitude in yourself

Tom Peters on Presentations

2008-09-12T16:37:00.001-07:00

July 20, 2005

In May, Tom Peters gave his insights on what he calls "Presentation Excellence" on his website. Great, great, great stuff from a guy who knows a thing or two about speaking to a crowd.

Tom also posted his tips — 56 in all — for Presentation Excellence. It's all great advice from someone who has a lot of experience speaking to groups big and small. Below I list what I believe are the "best 11" of Tom's 56 tips, just to give you a quick look. Tom posted his tips in a PowerPoint file on his site which you can download and then port into a Word file, reformat, and save as a good looking PDF to share with your staff. Here, I have combined some of his tips to keep it to 11 and added my brief comments below each of Toms' tips. (So why a "Best 11"? Hint: Have you seen Spinal Tap?)

(Download the Presentation Excellence PowerPoint document from Tom's site).

My "Best 11" of Tom Peters' 56 Tips (Tom's words in bold)

(1) Total commitment to the Problem/Project/Outcome

Authenticity. From the heart. You have to mean it. Absolutely fundamental. If it matters to you (deeply), it will matter to them.

(2) A compelling “Story line”/“Plot”

There's that word "story" again. Great presentations just don't contain great stories or anecdotes — the entire presentation is one grand story.

(3) Enough data to sink a tanker (98% in reserve). (Know the data from memory; ability to manipulate the data in your head)

Research. Facts. Evidence. Proof. Got to have them. But you probably only give them 2% of your knowledge in a typical presentation. But what if they want another one percent? Or what if they want an entirely different two percent from what you had prepared? Got to be ready for anything. If you know your topic inside and out — deep and wide — then there is nothing to worry about.

(4) Data are imperative, but also play to Emotion.

The brain has a logical left hemisphere an emotional right. We are presenting to people, who like it or not, are emotional beings. Even very technical presentations should not be data dumps alone. We must appeal to people's emotions.

(5) CONNECT! CONNECT! CONNECT!

Absolutely crucial. And where you connect with people is on the emotional level. You have great data, but is it the right data for them? Can you feel their pain? Can you tell a story?

(6) No more than ONE point per slide! NO CLUTTER!!!!!!!!! (no wee print/charts/graphs). Good quotes from the field. (Remember you’re “telling a story”).

Simple visuals for the screen, always. More technical, complicated data presentation can appear in the handout. (But what about Tom's PPT slides? We'll get to that another day....). QUOTES! Use them. This is one of the great things about slideware (PPT or KEY): the ability to bring in quotes from experts and display them in 58pt Gill Sans on a 20-foot screen. Wonderful.

(7) There must be "surprise"... some key facts that are not commonly known/are counter-intuitive (no reason to do the presentation in the first place if there are no Surprises)

Right. If you are just giving information, why present? Surprise, delight, challenge, engage the audience. People are busy — if they can get the same info from a book or an email, why bring them in to listen to a presentation? Make it matter.

(8) SMILE! RELAX (to a point) (fake it if necessary) ("up tight" is disastrous) (remember you are doing them a favor by sharing this Compelling Opportunity!)

This is one important way to connect. A smile may be the single most powerful form of nonverbal communication. By "fake it" I don't think Tom means be disingenuous and paint on a phony smile. The audience knows phony anyway. I think Tom means for us to remember that the presentation is also an "act" and the act must go on, even if we do not feel like smiling. We owe it to our audience (and ourselves) to be totally engaged in the present with our audience...and smile.

(9) EYE CONTACT!!!!!!!

Again, you want to make a powerful connection? You have to look people in the eye. In large rooms (and small) look directly at individuals. Do not just cast a general gaze to the back of the room. And of course, do not look at the screen (except in glancing), look into the eyes of the people you are talking with. What's a conversation without eye contact?

(10) Energy! Enthusiasm! .... Enjoy it! This is a Hoot! Remember your Goal: Change the world! ... A Presentation is an Act (FDR: “The President must be the nation’s number one actor”)

A presentation — big or small — is a performance, whether you like to think of it that way or not. Some think "performance" means "fake." Not at all. Have you ever seen a DVD performance of Ella Fitzgerald, Ray Charles, Frank Sinatra, or the 1968 Elvis Presley comeback special? Those cats (and chick) performed like crazy. They brought energy, enthusiasm, and had the time of their life on stage...and so did the audience. OK, we are not professional entertainers. But we must remember that our presentations are important opportunities to, in our own small way, have an impact...and change things for the better.

(11) Becoming an Excellent Presenter is as tough as becoming a great baseball pitcher. THIS IS IMPORTANT … and Presentation Excellence is never accidental! (Work your buns off!)

No, it ain't easy. In fact, it's hard. But careers have been advanced or derailed based on a presentation. Deals have been won or lost depending on the outcome of a presentation. Non-profits and volunteer organizations have won funding or folded up their tents depending on their performance in a presentation. Presentations matter. And it is something very worthy of our commitment and lifelong study.

HR Interview Questions and Answers

2008-09-07T05:06:00.000-07:00

Tell me about yourself ?
Start with the present and tell why you are well qualified for the position. Remember that the key to all successful interviewing is to match your qualifications to what the interviewer is looking for. In other words you must sell what the buyer is buying. This is the single most important strategy in job hunting.

So, before you answer this or any question it's imperative that you try to uncover your interviewer's greatest need, want, problem or goal.

To do so, make you take these two steps:
Do all the homework you can before the hr interview to uncover this person's wants and needs (not the generalized needs of the industry or company)

As early as you can in the interview, ask for a more complete description of what the position entails. You might say: “I have a number of accomplishments I'd like to tell you about, but I want to make the best use of our time together and talk directly to your needs. To help me do, that, could you tell me more about the most important priorities of this position? All I know is what I (heard from the recruiter, read in the classified ad, etc.)”

Then, ALWAYS follow-up with a second and possibly, third question, to draw out his needs even more. Surprisingly, it's usually this second or third question that unearths what the interviewer is most looking for.

You might ask simply, "And in addition to that?..." or, "Is there anything else you see as essential to success in this position?:

This process will not feel easy or natural at first, because it is easier simply to answer questions, but only if you uncover the employer's wants and needs will your answers make the most sense. Practice asking these key questions before giving your answers, the process will feel more natural and you will be light years ahead of the other job candidates you're competing with.

After uncovering what the employer is looking for, describe why the needs of this job bear striking parallels to tasks you've succeeded at before. Be sure to illustrate with specific examples of your responsibilities and especially your achievements, all of which are geared to present yourself as a perfect match for the needs he has just described.

What are your greatest strengths ?

You know that your key strategy is to first uncover your interviewer's greatest wants and needs before you answer questions. And from Question 1, you know how to do this.

Prior to any interview, you should have a list mentally prepared of your greatest strengths. You should also have, a specific example or two, which illustrates each strength, an example chosen from your most recent and most impressive achievements.

You should, have this list of your greatest strengths and corresponding examples from your achievements so well committed to memory that you can recite them cold after being shaken awake at 2:30AM.

Then, once you uncover your interviewer's greatest wants and needs, you can choose those achievements from your list that best match up.

As a general guideline, the 10 most desirable traits that all employers love to see in their employees are:

A proven track record as an achiever...especially if your achievements match up with the employer's greatest wants and needs.

Intelligence...management "savvy".

Honesty...integrity...a decent human being.

Good fit with corporate culture...someone to feel comfortable with...a team player who meshes well with interviewer's team.

Likeability...positive attitude...sense of humor.

Good communication skills.

Dedication...willingness to walk the extra mile to achieve excellence.

Definiteness of purpose...clear goals.

Enthusiasm...high level of motivation.

Confident...healthy...a leader.

What are your greatest weakness ?

Disguise a strength as a weakness.

Example: “I sometimes push my people too hard. I like to work with a sense of urgency and everyone is not always on the same wavelength.”

Drawback: This strategy is better than admitting a flaw, but it's so widely used, it is transparent to any experienced interviewer.

BEST ANSWER: (and another reason it's so important to get a thorough description of your interviewer's needs before you answer questions): Assure the interviewer that you can think of nothing that would stand in the way of your performing in this position with excellence. Then, quickly review you strongest qualifications.

Example: “Nobody's perfect, but based on what you've told me about this position, I believe I' d make an outstanding match. I know that when I hire people, I look for two things most of all. Do they have the qualifications to do the job well, and the motivation to do it well? Everything in my background shows I have both the qualifications and a strong desire to achieve excellence in whatever I take on. So I can say in all honesty that I see nothing that would cause you even a small concern about my ability or my strong desire to perform this job with excellence.”

Alternate strategy (if you don't yet know enough about the position to talk about such a perfect fit):

Instead of confessing a weakness, describe what you like most and like least, making sure that what you like most matches up with the most important qualification for success in the position, and what you like least is not essential.

Example: Let's say you're applying for a teaching position. “If given a choice, I like to spend as much time as possible in front of my prospects selling, as opposed to shuffling paperwork back at the office. Of course, I long ago learned the importance of filing paperwork properly, and I do it conscientiously. But what I really love to do is sell (if your interviewer were a sales manager, this should be music to his ears.)

Tell me about something you did – or failed to do – that you now feel a little ashamed of ?

As with faults and weaknesses, never confess a regret. But don’t seem as if you’re stonewalling either.

Best strategy: Say you harbor no regrets, then add a principle or habit you practice regularly for healthy human relations.

Example: Pause for reflection, as if the question never occurred to you. Then say to hr, “You know, I really can’t think of anything.” (Pause again, then add): “I would add that as a general management principle, I’ve found that the best way to avoid regrets is to avoid causing them in the first place. I practice one habit that helps me a great deal in this regard. At the end of each day, I mentally review the day’s events and conversations to take a second look at the people and developments I’m involved with and do a double check of what they’re likely to be feeling. Sometimes I’ll see things that do need more follow-up, whether a pat on the back, or maybe a five minute chat in someone’s office to make sure we’re clear on things…whatever.”

“I also like to make each person feel like a member of an elite team, like the Boston Celtics or LA Lakers in their prime. I’ve found that if you let each team member know you expect excellence in their performance…if you work hard to set an example yourself…and if you let people know you appreciate and respect their feelings, you wind up with a highly motivated group, a team that’s having fun at work because they’re striving for excellence rather than brooding over slights or regrets.”

Why are you leaving (or did you leave) this position ?

(If you have a job presently tell the hr)

If you’re not yet 100% committed to leaving your present post, don’t be afraid to say so. Since you have a job, you are in a stronger position than someone who does not. But don’t be coy either. State honestly what you’d be hoping to find in a new spot. Of course, as stated often before, you answer will all the stronger if you have already uncovered what this position is all about and you match your desires to it.

(If you do not presently have a job tell the hr.)

Never lie about having been fired. It’s unethical – and too easily checked. But do try to deflect the reason from you personally. If your firing was the result of a takeover, merger, division wide layoff, etc., so much the better.

But you should also do something totally unnatural that will demonstrate consummate professionalism. Even if it hurts , describe your own firing – candidly, succinctly and without a trace of bitterness – from the company’s point-of-view, indicating that you could understand why it happened and you might have made the same decision yourself.

Your stature will rise immensely and, most important of all, you will show you are healed from the wounds inflicted by the firing. You will enhance your image as first-class management material and stand head and shoulders above the legions of firing victims who, at the slightest provocation, zip open their shirts to expose their battle scars and decry the unfairness of it all.

For all prior positions:

Make sure you’ve prepared a brief reason for leaving. Best reasons: more money, opportunity, responsibility or growth.

The "Silent Treatment"

Like a primitive tribal mask, the Silent Treatment loses all it power to frighten you once you refuse to be intimidated. If your interviewer pulls it, keep quiet yourself for a while and then ask, with sincere politeness and not a trace of sarcasm, “Is there anything else I can fill in on that point?” That’s all there is to it.

Whatever you do, don’t let the Silent Treatment intimidate you into talking a blue streak, because you could easily talk yourself out of the position.

Why should I hire you?
By now you can see how critical it is to apply the overall strategy of uncovering the employer’s needs before you answer questions. If you know the employer’s greatest needs and desires, this question will give you a big leg up over other candidates because you will give him better reasons for hiring you than anyone else is likely to…reasons tied directly to his needs.

Whether your interviewer asks you this question explicitly or not, this is the most important question of your interview because he must answer this question favorably in is own mind before you will be hired. So help him out! Walk through each of the position’s requirements as you understand them, and follow each with a reason why you meet that requirement so well.

Example: “As I understand your needs, you are first and foremost looking for someone who can manage the sales and marketing of your book publishing division. As you’ve said you need someone with a strong background in trade book sales. This is where I’ve spent almost all of my career, so I’ve chalked up 18 years of experience exactly in this area. I believe that I know the right contacts, methods, principles, and successful management techniques as well as any person can in our industry.”

“You also need someone who can expand your book distribution channels. In my prior post, my innovative promotional ideas doubled, then tripled, the number of outlets selling our books. I’m confident I can do the same for you.”

“You need someone to give a new shot in the arm to your mail order sales, someone who knows how to sell in space and direct mail media. Here, too, I believe I have exactly the experience you need. In the last five years, I’ve increased our mail order book sales from $600,000 to $2,800,000, and now we’re the country’s second leading marketer of scientific and medical books by mail.” Etc., etc., etc.,

Every one of these selling “couplets” (his need matched by your qualifications) is a touchdown that runs up your score. IT is your best opportunity to outsell your competition.

Aren’t you overqualified for this position?
As with any objection, don’t view this as a sign of imminent defeat. It’s an invitation to teach the interviewer a new way to think about this situation, seeing advantages instead of drawbacks.

Example: “I recognize the job market for what it is – a marketplace. Like any marketplace, it’s subject to the laws of supply and demand. So ‘overqualified’ can be a relative term, depending on how tight the job market is. And right now, it’s very tight. I understand and accept that.”

“I also believe that there could be very positive benefits for both of us in this match.”

“Because of my unusually strong experience in ________________ , I could start to contribute right away, perhaps much faster than someone who’d have to be brought along more slowly.”

“There’s also the value of all the training and years of experience that other companies have invested tens of thousands of dollars to give me. You’d be getting all the value of that without having to pay an extra dime for it. With someone who has yet to acquire that experience, he’d have to gain it on your nickel.”

“I could also help you in many things they don’t teach at the Harvard Business School. For example…(how to hire, train, motivate, etc.) When it comes to knowing how to work well with people and getting the most out of them, there’s just no substitute for what you learn over many years of front-line experience. You company would gain all this, too.”

“From my side, there are strong benefits, as well. Right now, I am unemployed. I want to work, very much, and the position you have here is exactly what I love to do and am best at. I’ll be happy doing this work and that’s what matters most to me, a lot more that money or title.”

“Most important, I’m looking to make a long term commitment in my career now. I’ve had enough of job-hunting and want a permanent spot at this point in my career. I also know that if I perform this job with excellence, other opportunities cannot help but open up for me right here. In time, I’ll find many other ways to help this company and in so doing, help myself. I really am looking to make a long-term commitment.”

NOTE: The main concern behind the “overqualified” question is that you will leave your new employer as soon as something better comes your way. Anything you can say to demonstrate the sincerity of your commitment to the employer and reassure him that you’re looking to stay for the long-term will help you overcome this objection.

Where do you see yourself five years from now?
Reassure your interviewer that you’re looking to make a long-term commitment…that this position entails exactly what you’re looking to do and what you do extremely well. As for your future, you believe that if you perform each job at hand with excellence, future opportunities will take care of themselves.

Example: “I am definitely interested in making a long-term commitment to my next position. Judging by what you’ve told me about this position, it’s exactly what I’m looking for and what I am very well qualified to do. In terms of my future career path, I’m confident that if I do my work with excellence, opportunities will inevitable open up for me. It’s always been that way in my career, and I’m confident I’ll have similar opportunities here.”

Describe your ideal company, location and job.

The only right answer is to describe what this company is offering, being sure to make your answer believable with specific reasons, stated with sincerity, why each quality represented by this opportunity is attractive to you.

Remember that if you’re coming from a company that’s the leader in its field or from a glamorous or much admired company, industry, city or position, your interviewer and his company may well have an “Avis” complex. That is, they may feel a bit defensive about being “second best” to the place you’re coming from, worried that you may consider them bush league.

This anxiety could well be there even though you’ve done nothing to inspire it. You must go out of your way to assuage such anxiety, even if it’s not expressed, by putting their virtues high on the list of exactly what you’re looking for, providing credible reason for wanting these qualities.

If you do not express genuine enthusiasm for the firm, its culture, location, industry, etc., you may fail to answer this “Avis” complex objection and, as a result, leave the interviewer suspecting that a hot shot like you, coming from a Fortune 500 company in New York, just wouldn’t be happy at an unknown manufacturer based in Topeka, Kansas.

Why do you want to work at our company?

This question is your opportunity to hit the ball out of the park, thanks to the in-depth research you should do before any interview.

Best sources for researching your target company: annual reports, the corporate newsletter, contacts you know at the company or its suppliers, advertisements, articles about the company in the trade press.

What are your career options right now?

Prepare for this question by thinking of how you can position yourself as a desired commodity. If you are still working, describe the possibilities at your present firm and why, though you’re greatly appreciated there, you’re looking for something more (challenge, money, responsibility, etc.). Also mention that you’re seriously exploring opportunities with one or two other firms.

If you’re not working, you can talk about other employment possibilities you’re actually exploring. But do this with a light touch, speak only in general terms. You don’t want to seem manipulative or coy.

Why have you been out of work so long ?

You want to emphasize factors which have prolonged your job search by your own choice.

Example: “After my job was terminated, I made a conscious decision not to jump on the first opportunities to come along. In my life, I’ve found out that you can always turn a negative into a positive IF you try hard enough. This is what I determined to do. I decided to take whatever time I needed to think through what I do best, what I most want to do, where I’d like to do it…and then identify those companies that could offer such an opportunity.”

“Also, in all honesty, you have to factor in the recession (consolidation, stabilization, etc.) in the (banking, financial services, manufacturing, advertising, etc.) industry.”

“So between my being selective and the companies in our industry downsizing, the process has taken time. But in the end, I’m convinced that when I do find the right match, all that careful evaluation from both sides of the desk will have been well worthwhile for both the company that hires me and myself.

Tell me honestly about the strong points and weak points of your boss (company, management team, etc.)
Remember the rule: Never be negative. Stress only the good points, no matter how charmingly you’re invited to be critical.

Your interviewer doesn’t care a whit about your previous boss. He wants to find out how loyal and positive you are, and whether you’ll criticize him behind his back if pressed to do so by someone in this own company. This question is your opportunity to demonstrate your loyalty to those you work with.

What good books have you read lately?
Unless you’re up for a position in academia or as book critic for The New York Times, you’re not expected to be a literary lion. But it wouldn’t hurt to have read a handful of the most recent and influential books in your profession and on management.

Consider it part of the work of your job search to read up on a few of these leading books. But make sure they are quality books that reflect favorably upon you, nothing that could even remotely be considered superficial. Finally, add a recently published bestselling work of fiction by a world-class author and you’ll pass this question with flying colors.

Tell me about a situation when your work was criticized ?
Begin by emphasizing the extremely positive feedback you’ve gotten throughout your career and (if it’s true) that your performance reviews have been uniformly excellent.

Of course, no one is perfect and you always welcome suggestions on how to improve your performance. Then, give an example of a not-too-damaging learning experience from early in your career and relate the ways this lesson has since helped you. This demonstrates that you learned from the experience and the lesson is now one of the strongest breastplates in your suit of armor.

If you are pressed for a criticism from a recent position, choose something fairly trivial that in no way is essential to your successful performance. Add that you’ve learned from this, too, and over the past several years/months, it’s no longer an area of concern because you now make it a regular practice to…etc.

Another way to answer this question would be to describe your intention to broaden your master of an area of growing importance in your field. For example, this might be a computer program you’ve been meaning to sit down and learn… a new management technique you’ve read about…or perhaps attending a seminar on some cutting-edge branch of your profession.

Again, the key is to focus on something not essential to your brilliant performance but which adds yet another dimension to your already impressive knowledge base.

What are your outside interests ?
Try to gauge how this company’s culture would look upon your favorite outside activities and be guided accordingly.

You can also use this question to shatter any stereotypes that could limit your chances. If you’re over 50, for example, describe your activities that demonstrate physical stamina. If you’re young, mention an activity that connotes wisdom and institutional trust, such as serving on the board of a popular charity.

But above all, remember that your employer is hiring your for what you can do for him, not your family, yourself or outside organizations, no matter how admirable those activities may be.

The “Fatal Flaw” question
As every master salesperson knows, you will encounter objections (whether stated or merely thought) in every sale. They’re part and parcel of the buyer’s anxiety. The key is not to exacerbate the buyer’s anxiety but diminish it. Here’s how…

Whenever you come up against a fatal flaw question:

Be completely honest, open and straightforward about admitting the shortcoming. (Showing you have nothing to hide diminishes the buyer’s anxiety.)

Do not apologize or try to explain it away. You know that this supposed flaw is nothing to be concerned about, and this is the attitude you want your interviewer to adopt as well.

Add that as desirable as such a qualification might be, its lack has made you work all the harder throughout your career and has not prevented you from compiling an outstanding tack record of achievements. You might even give examples of how, through a relentless commitment to excellence, you have consistently outperformed those who do have this qualification.

Of course, the ultimate way to handle “fatal flaw” questions is to prevent them from arising in the first place. You will do that by following the master strategy described in Question 1, i.e., uncovering the employers needs and them matching your qualifications to those needs.

Once you’ve gotten the employer to start talking about his most urgently-felt wants and goals for the position, and then help him see in step-by-step fashion how perfectly your background and achievements match up with those needs, you’re going to have one very enthusiastic interviewer on your hands, one who is no longer looking for “fatal flaws”.

How do you feel about reporting to a younger person (minority, woman, etc)?
You greatly admire a company that hires and promotes on merit alone and you couldn’t agree more with that philosophy. The age (gender, race, etc.) of the person you report to would certainly make no difference to you.

Whoever has that position has obviously earned it and knows their job well. Both the person and the position are fully deserving of respect. You believe that all people in a company, from the receptionist to the Chairman, work best when their abilities, efforts and feelings are respected and rewarded fairly, and that includes you. That’s the best type of work environment you can hope to find.

On confidential matters…
Your interviewer may press you for this information for two reasons.

First, many companies use interviews to research the competition. It’s a perfect set-up. Here in their own lair, is an insider from the enemy camp who can reveal prized information on the competition’s plans, research, financial condition, etc.

Second, the company may be testing your integrity to see if you can be cajoled or bullied into revealing confidential data.

What to do? The answer here is easy. Never reveal anything truly confidential about a present or former employer. By all means, explain your reticence diplomatically. For example, “I certainly want to be as open as I can about that. But I also wish to respect the rights of those who have trusted me with their most sensitive information, just as you would hope to be able to trust any of your key people when talking with a competitor…”

And certainly you can allude to your finest achievements in specific ways that don’t reveal the combination to the company safe.

But be guided by the golden rule. If you were the owner of your present company, would you feel it ethically wrong for the information to be given to your competitors? If so, steadfastly refuse to reveal it.

Remember that this question pits your desire to be cooperative against your integrity. Faced with any such choice, always choose integrity. It is a far more valuable commodity than whatever information the company may pry from you. Moreover, once you surrender the information, your stock goes down. They will surely lose respect for you.

One President we know always presses candidates unmercifully for confidential information. If he doesn’t get it, he grows visibly annoyed, relentlessly inquisitive, It’s all an act. He couldn’t care less about the information. This is his way of testing the candidate’s moral fiber. Only those who hold fast are hired.

What would you say to your boss if he’s crazy about an idea, but you think it stinks ?

Remember the rule stated earlier: In any conflict between values, always choose integrity.

Example: I believe that when evaluating anything, it’s important to emphasize the positive. What do I like about this idea?”

“Then, if you have reservations, I certainly want to point them out, as specifically, objectively and factually as I can.”

“After all, the most important thing I owe my boss is honesty. If he can’t count on me for that, then everything else I may do or say could be questionable in his eyes.”

“But I also want to express my thoughts in a constructive way. So my goal in this case would be to see if my boss and I could make his idea even stronger and more appealing, so that it effectively overcomes any initial reservation I or others may have about it.”

“Of course, if he overrules me and says, ‘no, let’s do it my way,’ then I owe him my full and enthusiastic support to make it work as best it can.”

How could you have improved your career progress ?

You’re generally quite happy with your career progress. Maybe, if you had known something earlier in life (impossible to know at the time, such as the booming growth in a branch in your industry…or the corporate downsizing that would phase out your last job), you might have moved in a certain direction sooner.

But all things considered, you take responsibility for where you are, how you’ve gotten there, where you are going…and you harbor no regrets.

What would you do if a fellow executive on your own corporate level wasn’t pulling his/her weight…and this was hurting your department?

Try to gauge the political style of the firm and be guided accordingly. In general, fall back on universal principles of effective human relations – which in the end, embody the way you would like to be treated in a similar circumstance.

Example: “Good human relations would call for me to go directly to the person and explain the situation, to try to enlist his help in a constructive, positive solution. If I sensed resistance, I would be as persuasive as I know how to explain the benefits we can all gain from working together, and the problems we, the company and our customers will experience if we don’t.”

POSSIBLE FOLLOW-UP QUESTION
And what would you do if he still did not change his ways?

ANSWER: “One thing I wouldn’t do is let the problem slide, because it would only get worse and overlooking it would set a bad precedent. I would try again and again and again, in whatever way I could, to solve the problem, involving wider and wider circles of people, both above and below the offending executive and including my own boss if necessary, so that everyone involved can see the rewards for teamwork and the drawbacks of non-cooperation.”

“I might add that I’ve never yet come across a situation that couldn’t be resolved by harnessing others in a determined, constructive effort.”

You’ve been with your firm a long time. Won’t it be hard switching to a new company ?

To overcome this objection, you must point to the many ways you have grown and adapted to changing conditions at your present firm. It has not been a static situation. Highlight the different responsibilities you’ve held, the wide array of new situations you’ve faced and conquered.

As a result, you’ve learned to adapt quickly to whatever is thrown at you, and you thrive on the stimulation of new challenges.

To further assure the interviewer, describe the similarities between the new position and your prior one. Explain that you should be quite comfortable working there, since their needs and your skills make a perfect match.

May I contact your present employer for a reference ?

Express your concern that you’d like to keep your job search private, but that in time, it will be perfectly okay.

Example: “My present employer is not aware of my job search and, for obvious reasons; I’d prefer to keep it that way. I’d be most appreciative if we kept our discussion confidential right now. Of course, when we both agree the time is right, then by all means you should contact them. I’m very proud of my record there.

Give me an example of your creativity (analytical skill…managing ability, etc.)

Remember from Question 2 that you should commit to memory a list of your greatest and most recent achievements, ever ready on the tip of your tongue.

If you have such a list, it’s easy to present any of your achievements in light of the quality the interviewer is asking about. For example, the smashing success you orchestrated at last year’s trade show could be used as an example of creativity, or analytical ability, or your ability to manage.

Where could you use some improvement ?

Keep this answer, like all your answers, positive. A good way to answer this question is to identify a cutting-edge branch of your profession (one that’s not essential to your employer’s needs) as an area you’re very excited about and want to explore more fully over the next six months.

What do you worry about ?

Redefine the word ‘worry’ so that it does not reflect negatively on you.

Example: “I wouldn’t call it worry, but I am a strongly goal-oriented person. So I keep turning over in my mind anything that seems to be keeping me from achieving those goals, until I find a solution. That’s part of my tenacity, I suppose.”

I’m concerned that you don’t have as much experience as we’d like in...
This question is related to “The Fatal Flaw” , but here the concern is not that you are totally missing some qualifications, such as CPA certification, but rather that your experience is light in one area.

Before going into any interview, try to identify the weakest aspects of your candidacy from this company’s point of view. Then prepare the best answer you possible can to shore up your defenses.

To get past this question with flying colors, you are going to rely on your master strategy of uncovering the employer’s greatest wants and needs and then matching them with your strengths. Since you already know how to do this from Question 1, you are in a much stronger position.

More specifically, when the interviewer poses as objection like this, you should…

Agree on the importance of this qualification.

Explain that your strength may be indeed be greater than your resume indicates because…

When this strength is added to your other strengths, it’s really your combination of qualifications that’s most important.

Then review the areas of your greatest strengths that match up most favorably with the company’s most urgently-felt wants and needs.

This is powerful way to handle this question for two reasons. First, you’re giving your interviewer more ammunition in the area of his concern. But more importantly, you’re shifting his focus away from this one, isolated area and putting it on the unique combination of strengths you offer, strengths which tie in perfectly with his greatest wants.

How do you feel about working nights and weekends ?
First, if you’re a confirmed workaholic, this question is a softball lob. Whack it out of the park on the first swing by saying this kind of schedule is just your style. Add that your family understands it. Indeed, they’re happy for you, as they know you get your greatest satisfaction from your work.

If however, you prefer a more balanced lifestyle, answer this question with another: “What’s the norm for your best people here?”

If the hours still sound unrealistic for you, ask, “Do you have any top people who perform exceptionally for you, but who also have families and like to get home in time to see them at night?” Chances are this company does, and this associates you with this other “top-performers-who-leave-not-later-than-six” group.

Depending on the answer, be honest about how you would fit into the picture. If all those extra hours make you uncomfortable, say so, but phrase your response positively.

Example: “I love my work and do it exceptionally well. I think the results speak for themselves, especially in …(mention your two or three qualifications of greater interest to the employer. Remember, this is what he wants most, not a workaholic with weak credentials). Not only would I bring these qualities, but I’ve built my whole career on working not just hard, but smart. I think you’ll find me one of the most productive people here.

I do have a family who likes to see me after work and on weekends. They add balance and richness to my life, which in turn helps me be happy and productive at work. If I could handle some of the extra work at home in the evenings or on weekends, that would be ideal. You’d be getting a person of exceptional productivity who meets your needs with strong credentials. And I’d be able to handle some of the heavy workload at home where I can be under the same roof as my family. Everybody would win.”

Are you willing to relocate or travel ?
First find out where you may have to relocate and how much travel may be involved. Then respond to the question.
If there’s no problem, say so enthusiastically.
If you do have a reservation, there are two schools of thought on how to handle it.
One advises you to keep your options open and your reservations to yourself in the early going, by saying, “no problem”. You strategy here is to get the best offer you can, then make a judgment whether it’s worth it to you to relocate or travel.
Also, by the time the offer comes through, you may have other offers and can make a more informed decision. Why kill of this opportunity before it has chance to blossom into something really special? And if you’re a little more desperate three months from now, you might wish you hadn’t slammed the door on relocating or traveling.
The second way to handle this question is to voice a reservation, but assert that you’d be open to relocating (or traveling) for the right opportunity.
The answering strategy you choose depends on how eager you are for the job. If you want to take no chances, choose the first approach.
If you want to play a little harder-to-get in hopes of generating a more enticing offer, choose the second.

Do you have the stomach to fire people? Have you had experience firing many people ?
Describe the rational and sensible management process you follow in both hiring and firing.

Example: “My whole management approach is to hire the best people I can find, train them thoroughly and well, get them excited and proud to be part of our team, and then work with them to achieve our goals together. If you do all of that right, especially hiring the right people, I’ve found you don’t have to fire very often.
“So with me, firing is a last resort. But when it’s got to be done, it’s got to be done, and the faster and cleaner, the better. A poor employee can wreak terrible damage in undermining the morale of an entire team of good people. When there’s no other way, I’ve found it’s better for all concerned to act decisively in getting rid of offenders who won’t change their ways.”

Why have you had so many jobs ?
First, before you even get to the interview stage, you should try to minimize your image as job hopper. If there are several entries on your resume of less than one year, consider eliminating the less important ones. Perhaps you can specify the time you spent at previous positions in rounded years not in months and years.
Example: Instead of showing three positions this way:
6/1982 – 3/1983, Position A;
4/1983 – 12/1983, Position B;
1/1984 – 8/1987, Position C;
…it would be better to show simply:
1982 – 1983, Position A;
1984 – 1987 Position C.
In other words, you would drop Position B altogether. Notice what a difference this makes in reducing your image as a job hopper.
Once in front of the interviewer and this question comes up, you must try to reassure him. Describe each position as part of an overall pattern of growth and career destination.
Be careful not to blame other people for your frequent changes. But you can and should attribute certain changes to conditions beyond your control.
Example: Thanks to an upcoming merger, you wanted to avoid an ensuing bloodbath, so you made a good, upward career move before your department came under the axe of the new owners.
If possible, also show that your job changes were more frequent in your younger days, while you were establishing yourself, rounding out your skills and looking for the right career path. At this stage in your career, you’re certainly much more interested in the best long-term opportunity.
You might also cite the job where you stayed the longest and describe that this type of situation is what you’re looking for now.

What do you see as the proper role/mission of…
…a good (job title you’re seeking);
…a good manager;
…an executive in serving the community;
…a leading company in our industry; etc.

Think of the most essential ingredients of success for each category above – your job title, your role as manager, your firm’s role, etc.
Identify at least three but no more than six qualities you feel are most important to success in each role. Then commit your response to memory.
Here, again, the more information you’ve already drawn out about the greatest wants and needs of the interviewer, and the more homework you’ve done to identify the culture of the firm, the more on-target your answer will be.

Would you lie for the company ?
Try to avoid choosing between two values, giving a positive statement which covers all bases instead.

Example: “I would never do anything to hurt the company..”

If aggressively pressed to choose between two competing values, always choose personal integrity. It is the most prized of all values.

Looking back, what would you do differently in your life ?
Indicate that you are a happy, fulfilled, optimistic person and that, in general, you wouldn’t change a thing.

Example: “It’s been a good life, rich in learning and experience, and the best it yet to come. Every experience in life is a lesson it its own way. I wouldn’t change a thing.”

Could you have done better in your last job ?
Again never be negative.

Example: “I suppose with the benefit of hindsight you can always find things to do better, of course, but off the top of my head, I can’t think of anything of major consequence.”

(If more explanation seems necessary)

Describer a situation that didn’t suffer because of you but from external conditions beyond your control ?
For example, describe the disappointment you felt with a test campaign, new product launch, merger, etc., which looked promising at first, but led to underwhelming results. “I wish we could have known at the start what we later found out (about the economy turning, the marketplace changing, etc.), but since we couldn’t, we just had to go for it. And we did learn from it…”

Can you work under pressure ?
Absolutely…(then prove it with a vivid example or two of a goal or project accomplished under severe pressure.)

What makes you angry ?
Give an answer that’s suited to both your personality and the management style of the firm. Here, the homework you’ve done about the company and its style can help in your choice of words.

Examples: If you are a reserved person and/or the corporate culture is coolly professional:

“I’m an even-tempered and positive person by nature, and I believe this helps me a great deal in keeping my department running smoothly, harmoniously and with a genuine esprit de corps. I believe in communicating clearly what’s expected, getting people’s commitment to those goals, and then following up continuously to check progress.”

“If anyone or anything is going off track, I want to know about it early. If, after that kind of open communication and follow up, someone isn’t getting the job done, I’ll want to know why. If there’s no good reason, then I’ll get impatient and angry…and take appropriate steps from there. But if you hire good people, motivate them to strive for excellence and then follow up constantly, it almost never gets to that state.”

If you are feisty by nature and/or the position calls for a tough straw boss.

“You know what makes me angry? People who (the fill in the blanks with the most objectionable traits for this type of position)…people who don’t pull their own weight, who are negative, people who lie…etc.”

Why aren’t you earning more money at this stage of your career ?
You like to make money, but other factors are even more important.

Example: “Making money is very important to me, and one reason I’m here is because I’m looking to make more. Throughout my career, what’s been even more important to me is doing work I really like to do at the kind of company I like and respect.

(Then be prepared to be specific about what your ideal position and company would be like, matching them as closely as possible to the opportunity at hand.

Who has inspired you in your life and why?
Have a few heroes in mind, from your mental “Board of Directors” – Leaders in your industry, from history or anyone else who has been your mentor.

Be prepared to give examples of how their words, actions or teachings have helped inspire your achievements. As always, prepare an answer which highlights qualities that would be highly valuable in the position you are seeking.

What was the toughest decision you ever had to make?
Be prepared with a good example, explaining why the decision was difficult…the process you followed in reaching it…the courageous or effective way you carried it out…and the beneficial results.

Tell me about the most boring job you’ve ever had.

You have never allowed yourself to grow bored with a job and you can’t understand it when others let themselves fall into that rut.

Example: “Perhaps I’ve been fortunate, but that I’ve never found myself bored with any job I have ever held. I’ve always enjoyed hard work. As with actors who feel there are no small parts, I also believe that in every company or department there are exciting challenges and intriguing problems crying out for energetic and enthusiastic solutions. If you’re bored, it’s probably because you’re not challenging yourself to tackle those problems right under your nose.”

Have you been absent from work more than a few days in any previous position?
If you have had no problem, emphasize your excellent and consistent attendance record throughout your career.

Also describe how important you believe such consistent attendance is for a key executive…why it’s up to you to set an example of dedication…and why there’s just no substitute for being there with your people to keep the operation running smoothly, answer questions and handle problems and crises as they arise.

If you do have a past attendance problem, you want to minimize it, making it clear that it was an exceptional circumstance and that it’s cause has been corrected.

To do this, give the same answer as above but preface it with something like, “Other that being out last year (or whenever) because of (your reason, which is now in the past), I have never had a problem and have enjoyed an excellent attendance record throughout my career. Furthermore, I believe, consistent attendance is important because…” (Pick up the rest of the answer as outlined above.).

What changes would you make if you came on board?
You, of course, will want to take a good hard look at everything the company is doing before making any recommendations.

Example: “Well, I wouldn’t be a very good doctor if I gave my diagnosis before the examination. Should you hire me, as I hope you will, I’d want to take a good hard look at everything you’re doing and understand why it’s being done that way. I’d like to have in-depth meetings with you and the other key people to get a deeper grasp of what you feel you’re doing right and what could be improved.

“From what you’ve told me so far, the areas of greatest concern to you are…” (name them. Then do two things. First, ask if these are in fact his major concerns. If so then reaffirm how your experience in meeting similar needs elsewhere might prove very helpful).

How many hours a week do you normally work?
If you are in fact a workaholic and you sense this company would like that: Say you are a confirmed workaholic, that you often work nights and weekends. Your family accepts this because it makes you fulfilled.

If you are not a workaholic: Say you have always worked hard and put in long hours. It goes with the territory. It one sense, it’s hard to keep track of the hours because your work is a labor of love, you enjoy nothing more than solving problems. So you’re almost always thinking about your work, including times when you’re home, while shaving in the morning, while commuting, etc.

What’s the most difficult part of being a (job title)?
First, redefine “difficult” to be “challenging” which is more positive. Then, identify an area everyone in your profession considers challenging and in which you excel. Describe the process you follow that enables you to get splendid results…and be specific about those results.

Example: “I think every sales manager finds it challenging to motivate the troops in a recession. But that’s probably the strongest test of a top sales manager. I feel this is one area where I excel.”

“When I see the first sign that sales may slip or that sales force motivation is flagging because of a downturn in the economy, here’s the plan I put into action immediately…” (followed by a description of each step in the process…and most importantly, the exceptional results you’ve achieved.).

The “Hypothetical Problem”

Instead, describe the rational, methodical process you would follow in analyzing this problem, who you would consult with, generating possible solutions, choosing the best course of action, and monitoring the results.

Remember, in all such, “What would you do?” questions, always describe your process or working methods, and you’ll never go wrong.

What was the toughest challenge you’ve ever faced?
This is an easy question if you’re prepared. Have a recent example ready that demonstrates either:

A quality most important to the job at hand; or

A quality that is always in demand, such as leadership, initiative, managerial skill, persuasiveness, courage, persistence, intelligence, etc.

Have you consider starting your own business?
Again it’s best to:

Gauge this company’s corporate culture before answering and…

Be honest (which doesn’t mean you have to vividly share your fantasy of the franchise or bed-and-breakfast you someday plan to open).

In general, if the corporate culture is that of a large, formal, military-style structure, minimize any indication that you’d love to have your own business. You might say, “Oh, I may have given it a thought once or twice, but my whole career has been in larger organizations. That’s where I have excelled and where I want to be.”

If the corporate culture is closer to the free-wheeling, everybody’s-a-deal-maker variety, then emphasize that in a firm like this, you can virtually get the best of all worlds, the excitement of seeing your own ideas and plans take shape…combined with the resources and stability of a well-established organization. Sounds like the perfect environment to you.

In any case, no matter what the corporate culture, be sure to indicate that any desires about running your own show are part of your past, not your present or future.

The last thing you want to project is an image of either a dreamer who failed and is now settling for the corporate cocoon…or the restless maverick who will fly out the door with key accounts, contacts and trade secrets under his arms just as soon as his bankroll has gotten rebuilt.

Always remember: Match what you want with what the position offers. The more information you’ve uncovered about the position, the more believable you can make your case.

What are your goals?
Many executives in a position to hire you are strong believers in goal-setting. (It’s one of the reason they’ve achieved so much). They like to hire in kind.

If you’re vague about your career and personal goals, it could be a big turnoff to may people you will encounter in your job search.

Be ready to discuss your goals for each major area of your life: career, personal development and learning, family, physical (health), community service and (if your interviewer is clearly a religious person) you could briefly and generally allude to your spiritual goals (showing you are a well-rounded individual with your values in the right order).

Be prepared to describe each goal in terms of specific milestones you wish to accomplish along the way, time periods you’re allotting for accomplishment, why the goal is important to you, and the specific steps you’re taking to bring it about. But do this concisely, as you never want to talk more than two minutes straight before letting your interviewer back into the conversation.

What do you for when you hire people?
Speak your own thoughts here, but for the best answer weave them around the three most important qualifications for any position.

Can the person do the work (qualifications)?

Will the person do the work (motivation)?

Will the person fit in (“our kind of team player”)?

Sell me this stapler…(this pencil…this clock…or some other object on interviewer’s desk).
Of course, you already know the most important secret of all great salesmanship – “find out what people want, then show them how to get it.”

If your interviewer picks up his stapler and asks, “sell this to me,” you are going to demonstrate this proven master principle. Here’s how:

“Well, a good salesman must know both his product and his prospect before he sells anything. If I were selling this, I’d first get to know everything I could about it, all its features and benefits.”

“Then, if my goal were to sell it you, I would do some research on how you might use a fine stapler like this. The best way to do that is by asking some questions. May I ask you a few questions?”

Then ask a few questions such as, “Just out of curiosity, if you didn’t already have a stapler like this, why would you want one? And in addition to that? Any other reason? Anything else?”

“And would you want such a stapler to be reliable?...Hold a good supply of staples?” (Ask more questions that point to the features this stapler has.)

Once you’ve asked these questions, make your presentation citing all the features and benefits of this stapler and why it’s exactly what the interviewer just told you he’s looking for.

Then close with, “Just out of curiosity, what would you consider a reasonable price for a quality stapler like this…a stapler you could have right now and would (then repeat all the problems the stapler would solve for him)? Whatever he says, (unless it’s zero), say, “Okay, we’ve got a deal.”

NOTE: If your interviewer tests you by fighting every step of the way, denying that he even wants such an item, don’t fight him. Take the product away from him by saying, “Mr. Prospect, I’m delighted you’ve told me right upfront that there’s no way you’d ever want this stapler. As you well know, the first rule of the most productive salespeople in any field is to meet the needs of people who really need and want our products, and it just wastes everyone’s time if we try to force it on those who don’t. And I certainly wouldn’t want to waste your time. But we sell many items. Is there any product on this desk you would very much like to own…just one item?” When he points something out, repeat the process above. If he knows anything about selling, he may give you a standing ovation.

http://techpreparation.com/hr-interview-questions-answers/64-hr-interview-questions-answers8.htm

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2008-08-29T20:06:00.000-07:00

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2008-08-29T19:44:00.000-07:00

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Quality Customer Service Tips Lead to Better Sales
Better Customer Service Reduces Daily Problems
And Lots More!

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WINNING PRESENTATIONS
STRONG PUBLIC SPEAKING TECHNIQUES

This is a free online education courses preview!

The internet now provides great education learning online opportunities and the best are ABC online education courses. Our course includes public speaking lesson plans, how to avoid anxiety in public speaking and all important public speaking topics. Our online education courses are the best!

INCLUDED IN OUR PRACTICAL ONLINE
PUBLIC SPEAKING COURSES ARE:
Confidence building tips to avoid anxiety in public speaking
Key steps for public speaking lesson plans
Controlling the audience & the environment
Important strategies so you enjoy presentations
AND LOTS MORE!

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POWERFUL BUSINESS WRITING
BUSINESS LETTER WRITING FORMATS & MORE

This is a free online education courses preview!

The internet now provides great education learning online opportunities and the best are ABC online education courses. The best online education courses for 'Business letters sample', 'What are the best business letter writing formats','How is business writing changing' and so much more are in our outstanding online course.

EASY TO UNDERSTAND & PRACTICAL
POWERFUL BUSINESS LETTER WRITING FORMATS:
Tips to keep your letter focused and clear
Strategies to get your document READ
How to write a business letter effectively
Business letter writing formats that are brief, simple & have clarity
AND LOTS MORE!

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ETIQUETTE & MANNERS FOR
BUSINESS SUCCESS

This is a free online education courses preview!

The internet now provides great education learning online opportunities and the best are ABC online education courses. All our online education courses have tips including the tricky topic of business casual guidelines and what the business casual dress guidelines are. We also touch on the etiquette introductions business and how to impress others in business with your manners.

GETTING THE EDGE IN BUSINESS
KNOWING THE BEST MANNERS
MAKE A DIFFERENCE:
Business casual guidelines definition & dressing for success
Correct manners at meals, meetings & on the phone
New rules for business card use
Body language tips that will shock you
AND LOTS MORE!

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STRONG CONFLICT MANAGEMENT

This is a free online education courses preview!

The internet now provides great education learning online opportunities and the best are ABC online education courses. Everyone experiences conflict! Our online education courses on this topic have easy to follow, practical tips including conflict management resolutions, conflict resolution in work teams and how to quickly calm an angry person.

CONFLICT MANAGEMENT RESOLUTIONS &
TECHNIQUES OF CONFLICT RESOLUTION:
Using body language & words to manage conflict
Tips to control a manipulators bad behavior
How to successfully react to unfair criticism
5 different methods you can use to control conflict
AND LOTS MORE!

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THE BEST ASSERTIVE TRAINING ONLINE
STRONG ASSERTIVE COMMUNICATION

This is a free online education courses preview!

The internet now provides great education learning online opportunities and the best are ABC online education courses. The best assertive training online is in our outstanding 'Strong Assertive Communication' online education courses. Do you long to be an assertiveness woman? Take a course that has outstanding assertiveness skills training for women & men. Do you want more respect?

GET WHAT YOU WANT & DESERVE IN LIFE
ASSERTIVE STRATEGIES THAT WORK
Quiz to determine your assertive level
A clear definition of Assertive, Aggressive, etc.
Communication skills to help you be assertive
Assertive skills to handle difficult people
AND LOTS MORE!

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IMPROVING BUSINESS INTERNAL COMMUNICATION
STRENGTHENING 'YOUR TEAM'

This is a free online education courses preview!

The internet now provides great education learning online opportunities and the best are ABC online education courses. Every organization faces 'Barriers to effective business communication'. Valued employees will greatly benefit from this education learning online course which contains samples of business commuication exercises and strategies to improve results.

PRACTICAL BUSINESS TIPS FOR SUCCESS
Do you turn people on or off with your body language?
Some barriers to effective business communication
Simple steps everyone can learn to listen better?
How to avoid destructive messages in the workplace
AND LOTS MORE!

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NONVERBAL BUSINESS COMMUNICATION
BODY LANGUAGE SECRETS

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The internet now provides great education learning online opportunities and the best are ABC online education courses. Everyone uses body language and nonverbal business communication, but few understand the secrets of the meaning of different signals. This outstanding online course will reveal effective communication skills in business with the critical meaning of different signals and show ones to avoid in business.

UNDERSTANDING NON VERBAL COMMUNICATION IN BUSINESS
& YOUR PERSONAL LIFE
Positive non-verbal communication signals detailed
All negative body language signals are revealed
Tips on how to use nonverbal business communication to your advantage
Differences in body language between genders
AND LOTS MORE!

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RUNNING GREAT MEETINGS
PLANNING & ORGANIZING EFFICIENTLY

This is a free online education courses preview!

The internet now provides great education learning online opportunities and the best are ABC online education courses. Do you enjoy attending meetings? Most don't! To avoid long, useless and boring meetings, enjoy our online education courses on 'Running Great Meetings'. Learn to build strategic planning presentations, important time tips for meetings and how to create sample powerpoint presentations.

STRATEGIES YOU CAN USE AT YOUR NEXT MEETING
Producing effective agendas
Producing correct & brief minutes
Responsibilities of the chairperson & participants
How to control obnoxious people at meetings
AND LOTS MORE!

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NEGOTIATING TO WIN
SUCCESSFULLY & ASSERTIVELY MAKING YOUR POINT

This is a free online education courses preview!

The internet now provides great education learning online opportunities and the best are ABC online education courses. Negotiating to win includes “Assertiveness Skills Training for Women and Men”, strategies to present your ideas clearly and with impact as well as reasoning techniques. Concrete negotiating skills are presented in a fresh, logical and practical manner.

NEGOTIATING TO GET THE RESULT YOU WANT
STRATEGIES THAT REALLY WORK
Top strategies of the worlds best negotiators
Reasoning techniques that sell your ideas
Controlling your emotions during the negotiation
Communication tips that make a huge difference
AND LOTS MORE!

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PHONE POWER
EFFECTIVE BUSINESS
TELEPHONE ETIQUETTE

This is a free online education courses preview!

The internet now provides great education learning online opportunities and the best are ABC online education courses. “Phone Power” is a easy to understand set of strategies which include a guide for effective business telephone etiquette, assertive telephone communication and the importance of your phone “body language”.

THIS GREAT COURSE WILL CHANGE THE WAY YOU & YOUR
STAFF COMMUNICATE ON THE PHONE
Big mistakes people make using the phone
Powerful words that get your message through
Modern business telephone etiquette & manners
Handling upset or rude callers efficiently
AND LOTS MORE!

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COMMUNICATION DIFFERENCES
BETWEEN MEN WOMEN
AMAZING INSIGHTS YOU NEED TO KNOW

This is a free online education courses preview!

The internet now provides great education learning online opportunities and the best are ABC online education courses. MEN WOMEN COMMUNICATION DIFFERENCES! The challenge is huge. Yes we can learn to communicate better with the opposite sex. Relationship quotes and relationship quizzes are part of this outstanding online course that will solve many mysteries!

COMMUNICATION DIFFERENCES BETWEEN MEN WOMEN -
BOY IS THIS TRUE -
LEARN COPING TIPS THAT WORK
Learn why men & women are so different
Learn body language & verbal differences
Discover the things you should never say to a woman & to a man
Tips on becoming a better listener for both sexes
AND LOTS MORE!

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COMMUNICATION STRATEGIES FOR WOMEN
STRATEGIES FOR SUCCESS

This is a free online education courses preview!

The internet now provides great education learning online opportunities and the best are ABC online education courses. Effective communication skills, knowing the best assertiveness skills training for women, & understanding communication between men women are all critical to your success in both business & your personal life.

ADVANCING YOUR BUSINESS & PERSONAL SUCCESS THROUGH STRONG COMMUNICATION
Body language signals & their impact
Words that help communicate success
Understanding communication between men women
Projecting a Professional Image
AND LOTS MORE!

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SUCCESSFUL SALES & MARKETING SECRETS
STRATEGIES THAT 'GET RESULTS'

This is a free online education courses preview!

The internet now provides great education learning online opportunities and the best are ABC online education courses. Our online marketing course is full of tips & proven strategies that will help you make more money! Winning in the cash flow business is just one hour away in our education learning online course.

AN ONLINE MARKETING COURSE OF GREAT VALUE
PARTICIPANTS RAVE
ABOUT THIS SUPER COURSE
Correctly read prospect's non-verbal signals
Correctly recognize all "Buying Signals"
Wisely use your "Silent Sales Team" to build sales
Turn "Objections" into a sales "Close"
AND LOTS MORE!

Resume Tips

2008-04-26T17:16:00.000-07:00

Resume Tips
By Dawn Scheffner Jones

Good resumes are highly individualized products. Each one reflects the unique background, talent, and style of its owner. However, there are some accepted standards—and added touches—that successful education resumes tend to share. Here’s a quick review.

Be clear. What schools want most in a resume is clarity, strong organization, and ease in locating important information. Use consistent section headings and dating styles, be concise in descriptions, and avoid repetition and vague references. (Creating a clearly organized resume will also benefit you when transferring the information to an online resume builder.)

Use formatting that’s easy on the eyes. Don’t use hard-to-read font styles (no matter how attached you are to them) or font sizes that are too small to read clearly. Give the reader a chance to breath by having some white space in the resume. If you find you have too much information to present clearly, then you have more editing to do.

Eliminate errors. Avoid misspellings and grammatical errors. This is especially important for educators. Typographical errors may seem minor, but they look careless on a resume. Have someone proofread your resume.

Be descriptive. In your job descriptions, use action words such as "created," "directed," "wrote," and "taught." They make the resume interesting to read, and they demonstrate that you are a strong writer. Avoid lame sentences like “was an elementary science teacher for two years.”

Use detail. Make your descriptions specific and concrete. Avoid unclear words like "several," "various," and "numerous." Instead, provide the exact numbers and details.

Highlight your talents. Your resume should showcase your unique accomplishments. What separates you from other teachers? What have you done that is exemplary? Competition for jobs is tough: It’s not enough just to review your education and practice-teaching experiences. If possible, highlight instances where you helped raise student achievement, or created change in an organization.

Target the job. Make sure your teaching (or other education) experience is described more fully than other positions you’ve held. This is what the recruiter will be looking for. If you’ve had a previous career outside of education, emphasize accomplishments and experiences that transfer to the classroom.

Be informed. Present yourself as a dynamic, informed professional. Highlight your involvement with professional organizations and your familiarity with current practices and challenges in your field.

Get over high school. Avoid outdated or irrelevant information. Most recruiters don’t care about the fast food job you had in high school, or anything else about your high school experience, for that matter.

Don’t get too personal. Omit extraneous personal information—for example, pictures, height, weight, number of children, and other data of that sort.

Review your work. Have someone experienced review your resume—especially if you aren’t having success at first. Try the career services office at your college, or ask someone who is in education.

Check school requirements. Always check to see if the school or district has any preferences or requirements in terms of the length and format of resumes.

Go electric. Many school districts and education job sites request submission of electronic (or online) resumes. This can be an excellent opportunity to get your resume into their application systems quickly. Keep the information brief and concise, so the reader doesn’t have to do a lot of scrolling. Include plenty of key words to draw attention to your skills. Avoid fancy formatting. Choose content over style, simple over elaborate, short over long. And don’t forget to spell check (if possible), or print out a copy to proofread before hitting "submit."

Dawn Scheffner Jones is the senior assistant director at Northern Illinois University's Career Planning & Placement Center and president-elect of the American Association for Employment in Education.

Published: February 10, 2006

http://resources.topschooljobs.org/tsj/articles/2006/02/09/0206resume_cc.html

2008-03-30T13:38:00.000-07:00

How to Give Great Presentations (Part One)
By Jon Greer

I’ve heard a ton of people give advice about presentations, and most of it, in my humble opinion, is bad advice.

Tips such as “gesture with your hands” are not bad tips, per se, but they aren’t geared to the needs of people who actually have to learn to give better presentations. If you’re at the level of learning how to use your hands better, you’re an advanced presenter. And most of the people I see are so far from advanced it’s not funny. They need fundamental recommendations for giving great presentations.

That’s why I developed my list of the Top 10 Tips for Giving Great Presentations. These are designed to be fail-safe tips that, if followed, will surely improve the quality of any presentation.

Here are the first five (second half tomorrow):

Familiarize yourself with the venue: Check out the room: the configuration, speaker location, microphones, seating. This will increase your comfort level and decrease uncertainty while speaking

Know your audience:Who’s in the audience? What is their knowledge level of your subject? Will there be competitors in the room?

Know the context:When will you speak? How long? Who else is speaking? How will Q&A be handled?

Establish rapport: You don’t have to start with a joke, but it’s helpful to have a brief icebreaker at the beginning to show your humanity. Example: “I’m really glad to be speaking to you today and I’m honored to be on the same panel as the distinguished Dr. Smith.”
Look at individuals in the audience: Don’t stare into space, don’t watch your own slides, or look down at your shoes. Look into the faces of the people listening, one at a time. Speak to one, then casually turn your attention to another.

And here’s the uber-message: it’s all about the content and the storytelling. If your story makes sense because it has a beginning, middle and end, if you organize your speech to take the audience from Point A to Point B in a reasonable amount of time, then everything else will fall into place. If your presentation is an organizational mess, no amount of coaching or tips will save it.

Yesterday, I shared the first five of my Top 10 Tips for Giving Great Presentations. Today’s post continues with the second half of the list:

Simplify your presentation: No matter how technical your audience is, they aren’t as versed in your subject matter as you. Simplify difficult concepts, explain jargon, give examples, use anecdotes.

Start by giving the audience a roadmap to follow: Different than simply stating your “agenda” – the roadmap tells them the 3 or 4 key concepts you want them to take away.

Flag the concepts you want to make sure they don’t miss: Flags direct the audience’s attention to the most important material and bring wandering minds back to your presentation. Examples of flags: “Here’s the most important point…” “Here’s what I really want to get across…”

Repeat your points at the end: Don’t assume the audience was following your presentation to the letter. Include a brief summary slide that re-emphasizes your key points.

Relax: It’s not as stressful a situation as you think. The audience is rooting for you to do a good job and will happily forgive small gaffes or lapses. Give yourself permission to make small mistakes – everyone does. Don’t panic if you make a more serious mistake – stay calm, take your time and resolve the problem carefully.

And here’s a repeat of my “uber-message” from yesterday — it’s all about the content and the storytelling. If your story makes sense because it has a beginning, middle and end, if you organize your speech to take the audience from Point A to Point B in a reasonable amount of time, then everything else will fall into place. If your presentation is an organizational mess, no amount of coaching or tips will save it.

http://blogs.bnet.com/pr/?p=185

2008-03-22T09:08:00.000-07:00

Five Dysfunctions of a Team - - Teambuilding games that bring this must read material to life

NY Times best selling author poo-poos teambuilding games!

When I first heard this I said "How could that be?!"

If you’re reading this post then you know that (intuitively or consciously) teambuilding games are the fastest, easiest way to help people “get it” at a deeper level.

So what is the deal?

Perhaps Lencioni has never experienced the effective INTEGRATION of an experiential learning exercise (teambuilding game) into a team development workshop. After all, many inexperienced trainers will lead teambuilding games in a disjointed and ultimately ineffective way.

This TeleSeminar will help you teach the principles of the Five Dysfunctions book in a fun and engaging way using the power of teambuilding exercises.

I love Lencioni’s book because the five principles he offers up provide a wonderful framework upon which to build a powerful teambuilding program. In case you haven't read this book, the five principles are:

Absense of Trust
Fear of Conflict
Lack of Commitment
Avoidance of Accountability
Inattention to Results

My personal favorite from this list is Absense of Trust. Can you guess why?

Which one strikes a chord with you? Which one is the pivotal dysfunction in your mind?

I have advised many a trainer to use the book as the framework for their team training event.

But Lencioni in all his wisdom offers no experiential learning activities to drive home the lessons of his book.

Wouldn't you love to overcome the five biggest blocks to great teams before they come up?

2008-03-21T19:38:00.000-07:00

Meetings – 6 factors to consider before you call one

First appeared in ‘Advant Edge’ (U.S.A.)

Meetings are usually awful. They are possibly the most disliked part of modern business. It has been estimated that there are anything between 11 and 25 million meetings held per day in America alone. It’s far too many. If you feel you need to call a meeting. Stop. Take a deep breath and work through the following factors.

Factor 1: Purpose and Intended Result

Is there a definite, tangible purpose for the meeting and a clear intended result? If you can’t explain to yourself what you want from the meeting don’t hold it and carry out one of the following activities;

a) If it’s an information sharing meeting send a report, a video of a presentation, a link?

b) If it’s a decision making meeting - just make the decision and let people know later.

If you have a Purpose and Intended Result work through the remaining factors;

Factor 2: People

Who should attend? Don’t invite people to a meeting because they always come to these meetings. If you know people are only attending because of their position in the Organisation investigate it. The number of managers who rush to a junior member of staff before a meeting to be briefed then have to brief them after the meeting must be phenomenal.

Get the right person to attend - irrespective of their position. Also people frequently don’t need to attend all the meeting. Prepare a list of who should stay / go for each item on the agenda. There is nothing worse than sitting through a three hour meeting waiting for your ten minute slot at the end that will inevitably be postponed until the next time because you’ve run out of time.

Factor 3: Timings

Be ruthless. Schedule an item and schedule a time. If an item’s scheduled for 20 minutes and time’s up and you’re nowhere near a conclusion stop it - reschedule it and move on to the next item. This will be incredibly hard to begin with but people will soon learn to get to the point quicker.

Always start on time. If people are late they get to miss it this time. It will encourage people to get used to your way of doing things.

Factor 4: Content

What type of meeting is it? Separate information sharing meetings and decision making meetings. Inevitably the person who has presented the information will have a bias towards getting it accepted even if there are stronger arguments. Separate these meetings - ideally over a day or so to allow people to assimilate all the information, or at least take a break between the presentations and the voting.

Factor 5: Be Creative.

There are some different ways of holding meetings and different approaches that may not be popular with a few people early on but they will get used to it;

Stand up meetings. No chairs, no coffee - a quick Monday morning progress meeting would be a good candidate. People are surprising eloquent and to the point once they’ve been standing for 10 minutes or so.

You can have creative meetings - really. They can be fun and extremely useful. If you have a problem, or a proposal to look at try something a little different. One technique is to use the principles outlined in Edward de Bono’s ‘Six Thinking Hats’; the chair will have the blue hat which manages the process. Other attendees are given a particular colour hat and must act out the process for that particular colour;

black hat is for negativity and why something won’t work,

white hat is concerned with information - facts and figures,

red hat deals with feelings and intuition,

yellow hat symbolises optimism and positive thinking

green hat focuses on creativity.

So, once these roles are assigned the topic is discussed. The black hat thinkers will look for reason this won’t work. The white hat thinkers will argue on the basis of facts and figures, and so on. The discussions are usually lively and productive. People don’t get trapped into defending positions but can explore ideas in a creative way.

Factor 6: Any Other Business

Never, ever have Any Other Business - ever. If people can’t inform you before the meeting - it can’t be that important, or they are doing it for tactical reasons.

There may be the odd occasion where you have to ignore these considerations but generally it is vital to work through a checklist. Meetings do develop a life of their own once they occur regularly and start taking over peoples’ lives.

Sunday, September 9th, 2007

2008-03-14T12:24:00.001-07:00

More than any other time in history, small business owners around the world are looking to support each other to become more successful - to share ideas and resources in ways that not only allow us all to create more wealth, but also contribute more wealth as well.

With the reach of Roger Hamilton's XL Results Foundation, the world's leading entrepreneur and social enterprise network now spanning 53 cities in 22 countries "Your Life, Your Legacy" is the largest gathering of local and international entrepreneurs of its kind.

If you are a small to medium sized business owner looking to expand - or considering taking your first steps as an entrepreneur - this event will introduce you to a world of new possibilities.

Your Life, Your Legacy | An introduction

Over 2.5 days, Roger Hamilton, Chairman of XL Results Foundation and the creator of 'Your Life, Your Legacy' will guide you to develop six powerful tools central to every fast growth enterprise.

1. The power of a common language for entrepreneurs to use with their networks & teams.
2. The power of a global community of like-minded business owners.
3. The power of a clear, long-term vision for yourself and your business.
4. The power of an international resource base supporting you.
5. The power of associating with other thought leaders in business.
6. The power of trust - with your clients, employees, partners and networks.

Your understanding and implementation of these 6 principles will set the foundation for the "Your Life, Your Legacy" experience, however by no means completes the journey. We hope you can take to time to explore the different areas, using the tabs at the top of the screen, which will give you a deeper insight into what to expect over the 2.5 days.

2008-03-14T12:02:00.000-07:00

Dear agung,

WELCOME to Dr. MICHAEL MERCER's MANAGEMENT NEWSLETTER.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
TABLE OF CONTENTS for this MANAGEMENT NEWSLETTER

+ Inspirational Quotes

+ Article = "5 WAYS TO AVOID HIRING PSYCHOPATHS"

+ Do You Want More Articles or Info or Books on This Month's Topic?

+ Joke of the Month

+ You Can Publish Our Articles in Your Newsletter or Website

+ How Can You Contact Dr. Michael Mercer & His Staff?

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
INSPIRATIONAL QUOTES

"You're going to face all sorts of obstacles along the way - and your desire has to outweigh your despair."
- Kenneth Brown, author of "From Welfare to Faring Well"

"Be strong and courageous."
- Joshua 1:6

"It's kind of fun to do the impossible."
- Walt Disney

"Let's go, and do some good."
- Larry-the-Cable-Guy in his movie "Witless"

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
FEATURE ARTICLE = "5 WAYS TO AVOID HIRING PSYCHOPATHS"

Avoid hiring psychopaths using pre-employment tests, key job interview
questions, background and reference checks, and even their aura.

PSYCHOPATHS IN THE NEWS (& maybe in your company)

Recently, the news is buzzing about a high-level people who (a)
preached a high moral standard but then (b) acted using a low moral standard.
This includes elected government officials and even some clergy.
Unfortunately, sometimes employees violate standards of conduct or laws,
and this creates a big mess for a company.

Some of these trouble-making people are "psychopaths."

HOW TO SPOT A PSYCHOPATH

A psychopath
* has no conscience
* manipulates people
* preaches high moral standards, but lives low moral standards
* charms people
* seduces or acts inappropriate in that regard
* threatens other people in terms of their (a) well-being or (b) physical safety

Psychopaths prey on people who give in to their manipulations, verbal hostility, or physical intimidation. Their prey often do not tell managers or executives due to
(1) fear of how the psychopath will treat them if they snitch or
(2) psychopaths charming managers so much that the managers do not believe the "snitch" who reveals how the psychopath really acts.

MANAGERS MUST NEVER HIRE PSYCHOPATHS

It is crucial for managers to avoid hiring psychopaths. Harmony promotes productivity. Fear caused by a psychopath's threats, hostility and manipulations destroy harmonious work relationships. So, managers must not hire psychopaths.

5 WAYS TO AVOID HIRING PSYCHOPATHS

1. Pre-Employment Tests - especially certain test scores

From my research on pre-employment tests, there are specific test scores that may indicate a job applicant is a psychopath.

Specifically, psychopaths may get low or high scores on certain measures/scales in pre-employment tests:
* low scores on two measures - (a) Truthfulness and (b) Following Rules
* high scores on two measures - (a) Aggressiveness and (b) Power Motivation

Lesson: Be cautious with job applicants who get such scores on pre-employment tests.

2. Job Interviews
If you suspect a job applicant may be a psychopath, then you can ask questions to elicit answers revealing if the applicant threatens or intimidates people. Reason: Psychopaths get a huge thrill from intimidating through
(a) real or implied threats,
(b) verbal hostility, and
(c) manipulation.

So, managers need to ask questions that let the psychopath proudly tell you about getting their way through intimidation.

Examples of such job interview questions:
a. "Imagine two times you had difficulty getting co-workers or employees to use your very good ideas. Tell me exactly how you handled them to get them to use your ideas?"

b. Everyone has friction with co-workers or employees. Tell me two specific experiences in which you needed to work with an employee with whom you had friction."

After asking each question, listen for the job applicant boasting about implied or real threats, intimidating, anger, or ridiculing other employees.

Warning: Another red flag is if the applicant smiles at you, and says anything like "You had better offer me a job" - with the implication of "or else" between the lines.

3. Reference Checks
Call the job applicant's ex-bosses at home, and ask for a "personal reference." Obtain specific examples of how the applicant "handled difficulties and friction with other employees." Listen for warning signs of threats, intimidation, anger, or ridicule.

4. Background Checks
Fortunately, sometimes psychopaths bite the dust by getting convicted.
So, managers should uncover convictions for crimes that would concern a company, for example, stealing, fraud, DUI, or violence. Also, check to see if their claimed educational degrees and diplomas are real, and not figments of their manipulative lies.

5. Aura
Alright, I admit this is not scientific. But, if your gut-feeling about an applicant says trouble is brewing under the applicant's smiling, charming exterior, then listen to your suspicion.

If something about a job applicant "does not feel right," then you are better off finding a better applicant. Find a job applicant who does well in all your prediction methods. That includes doing well on pre-employment tests, interviews, references, and background checks.

Yes, that also includes finding a job applicant who exudes a good aura.
COPYRIGHT 2008 MICHAEL MERCER, PH.D.
-----------------------------------------------------

Dr. Michael Mercer is the Hire the Best Expert. Pre-employment tests he created help companies hire productive, dependable employees. His 5 books include "Hire the Best & Avoid the Rest" and also "Turning Your HR Dept. into a Profit Center." Many companies also use his customized interview method. Dr. Mercer delivers speeches and training seminars at companies and conferences. You can get his free 14-page White Paper on "Hire Productive, Profitable, & Honest Employees" plus subscribe to his free Management Newsletter at website =
http://www.Pre-EmploymentTests.com.
-----------------------------------------------------

DO YOU WANT MORE ARTICLES or INFO or BOOKS ON THIS MONTH'S TOPIC?

Articles = http://www.pre-employmenttests.com/articlesdemo.html

Books by Dr. Mercer touched on in this month's feature article:
a. "Hire the Best -- & Avoid the Rest(tm)"
b. "Absolutely Fabulous Organizational Change(tm)"
c. "Turning Your Human Resources Department into a
Profit Center (tm)"

Books = http://www.pre-employmenttests.com/storeonline.html

Pre-Employment Tests = http://www.Pre-EmploymentTests.com
---------------------------------------------
JOKE OF THE MONTH

The following comment was overheard at a Starbuck's coffee shop. Two
people were sitting together at a table, and one person said this to the
other person:
"Are we in this Starbuck's - or are we in the Starbuck's that's a block
from here?"
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YOU CAN PUBLISH OUR ARTICLES in YOUR NEWSLETTER or WEBSITE

Permission to reprint: You may reprint any item from "Dr. Mercer's
Management Newsletter" in your company's or association's print or
electronic newsletter/magazine - but you must include the following:

"Reprinted from "Dr. Mercer's Management Newsletter," a free newsletter
featuring tips on hiring and leadership. You can get a free
subscription to his Newsletter at http://www.Pre-EmploymentTests.com."

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HOW CAN YOU CONTACT DR. MICHAEL MERCER & HIS STAFF?

You can call Dr. Mercer and staff to discuss how his speeches, training
and pre-employment tests can help your company.

Phone = 847-382-0690

E-mail = DrMercer@MercerSystems.com

Pre-Employment Tests = http://www.Pre-EmploymentTests.com

Seminars & Speeches = http://DrMercer.com

COPYRIGHT 2008 The Mercer Group, Inc.

How to subscribe:
If you know people who will benefit from Dr. Mercer's Management
Newsletter, they quickly can sign-up for their own subscriptions at (1)
http://www.Pre-EmploymentTests.com or (2) 847-382-0690.

2008-03-13T08:18:00.002-07:00

Pain and Pleasure -- What creates change?
Tuesday, September 13 , 2005

What does it take to motivate someone (manager, team member) to change their behavior back in the office AFTER the teambuilding workshop?

I'd like to believe that a one day (once a year) teambuilding workshop will create long term change in a person but it usually doesn't.

The teambuilding workshop can create an "opening" - - a place for someone to create the initial shift. The workshop will not sustain the change. And some who attend the workshop will refuse to change their behavior (during or after the workshop).

What is it then that keeps a person "stuck" in old disruptive behavior?

The reason people don't change is that they associate pain to changing. Change requires moving into the unknown and many people associate pain to the unknown. The pain they experience now as a result of not changing is (they believe) LESS painful than going through all the effort of changing.

People are motivated by two factors:
1. The need to avoid pain
2. The need to gain pleasure
The brain is setup to do these two things on a moment to moment basis. It helps us survive. The brain is asking "Will doing this thing help me avoid pain? Will doing this thing help me gain pleasure?"

My dad was a near chain smoker for many years and had made feeble attempts at quitting UNTIL he had a heart attack. Prior to the heart attack he had associated more pain to quitting than not. After the heart attack he linked the intense pain he was experiencing to the smoking and he never picked up again. The pain of quitting became LESS painful than the pain he associated to remaining a smoker. When presented with two painful choices we will choose the less painful of the two.

The key here is what the person ASSOCIATES the pain to. Did my dad have to have a heart attack to stop smoking? No. He could have used his imagination to clearly associate intense (intense!) pain to smoking and he would have dropped the habit just as fast.

To get someone (a team member) to change their behavior long term they must associate massive pain to the existing old negative behavior and intense pleasure to the new (higher conscioussness) positive behavior.

When comparing pain and pleasure as motivators, pain is the greater motivator - - short term.

Long term, pleasure is the greater motivator.

How then to bring in the pleasure component?

Many people (many teams) are very clear about what they don't want. By helping someone become clear about what they do want in their life (the pleasure) I help them create a clear and powerfully articulated VISION that absolutely inspires and uplifts them. A powerfully articulated vision helps a person (a team) be drawn toward that which they desire. A powerfully articulated vision will help people have the courage and discipline to stay the course.

Are you ready to receive the benefits of a clearly and powerfully articulated vision for your team?

2008-03-13T08:18:00.001-07:00

Go Back to School with Online Art & Design Degrees
by Chloë Dowley

As much as you'd like summer to last forever, fall's arrival is imminent, and with it comes 'back to school' season. If you've thought about turning your creativity and interest in interior design, fashion, or graphic design into a career, now might be the perfect time. As the air turns crisp and leaves begin to change color, there's no need to sit idly by and envy those who are beginning a new school year. Binders and mechanical pencils aren't just for 5th graders anymore, as more and more adults take advantage of the convenience of online educational opportunities. Why not join them as you pursue a degree in design?
The Ease of Online Education

According to Making the Grade: Online Education in the United States, 2006, published by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, nearly 3.2 million students were taking at least one online course during the fall 2005 term. That number continues to grow as increasing numbers of 2- and 4-year post-secondary schools create online courses and degree programs. When you consider the convenience and flexibility offered by online schools, it's no wonder that so many students are signing up for Web-based learning opportunities.

This growing interest in distance education provides increased options if you're searching online for a design school. Whether you want to begin a career in fashion design, attend interior design school, or take online graphic design classes, you should have no trouble finding a program that meets your needs.
Get Educated in Style

Your unique sense of fashion shouldn't have to stay in your closet. Give your fashion flair free reign by enrolling for formal training with fashion design and merchandising courses, some of which can even be taken online. While you probably can't justify a new wardrobe if you're going back to school via the Internet, you can certainly work on designing yourself some new duds as a fashion school student.

Two- and 4-year degrees in fashion design could help you launch a career in this highly creative field. As you dive into your online fashion courses, you can expect to take courses in color, textiles, fashion history, and computer aided design (CAD). In addition to the obvious benefits of pursuing a career in fashion, get motivated by the fact that fashion designers earned a median annual salary of $55,840 in 2004, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Redecorate Your Career

Thanks to Web technology, you don't have to live in a dorm room or even put up with cafeteria food in order to earn your degree in interior design. Next time you're thinking about redoing your home office, sit down at your computer and enroll in an online interior design degree program.

If you're serious about pursuing a career in interior design, academic preparation is very important. Because of the competitive nature of this field, and the licensure requirements, an associate's degree in interior design is generally the minimum education you need to qualify for entry-level positions. With a 2-year degree, you could be an assistant designer, while graduates with bachelor's degrees can participate as apprentices in a formal design program, which prepares them to take the licensure exam to become a certified, registered, or licensed interior designer.
Achieve Graphic Design Greatness

If your design interests lie in print, electronic, and film media, there's no need to keep your doodles to yourself. If you're serious about a career in digital arts & graphic design, it's wise to pursue formal training. According to a 2004 study commissioned by DesignMentor Training, more than half of all jobs in the graphic design field were awarded to individuals with a bachelor's or master's degree-level training. Fire up your computer and build your skills with online training!

Of all the design fields, graphic designers should see the biggest increase in new jobs over the next 7 years. To qualify for most entry-level jobs in this field, you need a bachelor's degree in graphic design. If you only have time for a 2-year degree, don't despair--some entry-level technical positions are available to graduates with associate's degrees in graphic design. With the proper graphic design training and a few years of experience under your belt, you could even qualify for a position as a creative designer, overseeing creative projects and managing design staff.
Study Design Online or On-Campus

If you have designs on a new career in these creative fields, seize the moment. Take your pick from a variety of campus-based arts schools and online design schools and get in the 'back to school' spirit by registering for classes online. A career in fashion design, interior design, or graphic design could be yours if you're willing to roll up your sleeves and get studying.

2008-03-13T08:16:00.002-07:00

Magical Career Opportunities: Harry Potter Mania's Not for Children Only
by Chloë Dowley

Whether you waited in line all night for your copy of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows or you're sick of the Potter-mania, you--like the rest of us--see children's literature in a fresh light because of the Harry Potter books. Once relegated to the kids' corner of bookstores and to Sunday matinee films, young people's fiction and related industries are experiencing a renaissance, thanks in large part to J.K. Rowling's series.

Regardless of public controversies over the boy wizard and his friends, consumer money talks. Revenues at Scholastic and Warner Brothers are sky-high. But there's no reason that more of us can't benefit from the market created by the gang at Hogwarts. With the proper education (and I'm not talking about potions and spells), witches, wizards, and muggles alike can get in on creative career opportunities in Potter-inspired fields.
Be the Next J.K. Rowling

Once a starving single mom, Rowling is now the richest woman in England thanks to the amazingly popular world she created in the Potter series. As Rowling steps out of the limelight she will leave a void to in the children's section of Borders, giving aspiring fantasy authors a chance to make themselves known. If you have an active imagination and enjoy putting your thoughts on paper, maybe you should consider honing your skills with some professional training.

A liberal arts degree is a great way to learn how to do research and to express yourself more eloquently in writing. Associate's and bachelor's degrees in liberal arts are available from schools nationwide, and many offer online writing courses as well. As a student in a liberal arts degree program you could expect to take courses in disciplines varying from anthropology and political science to economics and literature. How else could you learn about magical beliefs, inter-school rivalries, the relative value of owls, or the fantasy genre? The research and writing you'll do to get your liberal arts degree could be just the motivation to take your ideas from notebook scrawlings to typed manuscripts.
Make Big Screen Wizardry

For those of us who aren't up to ingesting 700-plus pages of a book, the Harry Potter movies are an entertaining way to get a taste of the fun. Fans obviously agree, as Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix broke box office records in its first few days of release. Bringing flying brooms, dragons, and dueling magicians to the big screen requires the work of highly skilled professionals, however, and the popularity of fantasy films is good news for anyone interested in a career in digital graphic design or animation.

If you'd like to see your name in the credits of the movie version of The Deathly Hallows, you'll need to get to work. Degrees in graphic design and animation can help prepare you for a creative career in this field, with training that focuses on using the latest computer software to make your imagination come to life. Although certificates and associate's degrees are available in graphic design and animation, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reports that most entry-level jobs in this field require at least a bachelor's degree.
Build the Hype

Harry, Ron and Hermione might never have risen to stardom without the efforts of hard-working marketing, and public relations professionals. Get involved in this industry, and you could help spread the word for the next big fad. Advertising and public relations specialists sell ad space for radio, TV, internet, billboards, or printed publications. Professionals in this field are responsible for an array of activities, including conceptualizing and designing advertising campaigns and creating a positive public image for clients--be they humans, wizards, or movies.

In addition to the great people skills, creativity and ability to problem-solve that you may already bring to an advertising or PR job, it's wise to get some career training under your belt to prepare yourself for success. Some occupations in this field (such as assistant art directors or assistant copywriters) are available to individuals with 2-year degrees. If you'd like to work as a media-planner or as a public relations specialist, you'd probably benefit from a bachelor's degree in public relations or marketing.
Find Your Own Hogwarts

Thanks to online degree programs, getting a career-directed education is more convenient than ever before. While you won't find a professor quite as wise as Dumbledore or a campus with a Quidditch court, you will find a wide array of schools from which to choose. Earning your degree won't be as easy as waving a magic wand, but if you keep your career goals in mind you may find yourself enjoying the process. Harry Potter's fate has been written. Yours is up to you.

2008-03-13T08:16:00.001-07:00

Choose a Creative Career That's Uniquely You
by Chloë Dowley

There's no need to blend in with everyone else if you have imaginative ideas to share with the world. Whether you choose to earn a graphic design degree, pursue a career in fashion, or attend interior design school, the right education could help you lend your distinctive look to everything you touch.
Video Game Design - Get in the Game

Halo was fun and Grand Theft Auto had its moments, but it's time for the next big thing. If you've been daydreaming about the details of your own game, stop playing and start studying. Degrees in the digital arts are readily available from a number of online schools which could train you for a career as a game designer. As a student in a digital graphic arts program, you could use your game idea for a senior project.

The Basics for Game Designers:
Fringe Benefits: Combine career training with your natural skills and you could have a high-tech, fun career in game design.
Earning Potential: BLS reports that multimedia artists (of which game designers are a subset) earned a median annual salary of over $50,000 in 2004.
Training: A degree in digital graphic arts could help you learn how to bring your ideas to life onscreen.
Fashion Design - Design and Market your own Clothes

Having a great sense of style doesn't mean that you can just whip up a cool pair of pants on your Singer. Without even changing out of your very chic pajamas you could work toward your fashion design degree and take your ideas from the sketchbook to your closet.
The Basics for Fashion Designers:
Fringe Benefits: Not only could you have a killer wardrobe, but how fun would it be to see your designs on others?
Earning Potential: The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) reports that the median salary of fashion designers was over $55,000 in 2004.
Training: Learn about fabrics, style, and merchandising at fashion school, and you could make a career out of your trendy fashion sense.
Web Design - Create a Cool Web Site

Instead of envying everyone else's Web site, earn your online graphic and web design degree and learn how to make your own home page equally awesome. A degree in graphic web design could help you give your blog or site a facelift and could even lead you down a new career path.
The Basics for Web Designers:
Fringe Benefits: The Internet doesn't show any sign of going out of style so your technical skills should be in demand for years to come.
Earning Potential: You'll reap the benefits of a highly visited Web site and median annual earnings close to $40,000.
Training: There are plenty of graphic design schools offering degrees that could train you to work as a professional Web designer.
Interior Decorating - Make Your Home Unique

Instead of rearranging your studio apartment for the umpteenth time, give your career a makeover by investing in an interior design degree. Learn the window treatment secrets of the pros, the basics of textiles and color combinations, and the best ways to maximize a small space. If your place looks nice now, imagine how great it could be once you've graduated from interior design school.
The Basics for Interior Decorators:
Fringe Benefits: What could beat getting paid to do what you love? Having the coolest apartment in your building could be just the beginning.
Earning Potential: Your salary will vary depending on your specific position and where you're employed, but BLS reported annual earnings of over $40,000 in this field in 2004.
Training: Because it's a competitive profession, you'll need to earn a degree in degree in interior design for most entry-level positions.
Logo Design - Create your Brand

Whether it's the swoosh on your sneakers, the golden arches on the corner, or the apple on your computer, logos are everywhere. Get in on the action by becoming a logo designer and create your own personal symbol that you could use on business cards, letterhead, or even as a monogram on clothing.
The Basics for Logo Designers:
Fringe Benefits: If getting paid to play around on your favorite computer graphics programs all day sounds good, this might just be the career for you.
Earning Potential: While there are no salary figures specific to this specialty, BLS reports that the median salary of graphic designers in the advertising industry earned in 2004 was just over $40,000.
Training: Depending on the time you want to invest, an associate or bachelor's graphic design degree should give you the foundations to start a career as a logo designer.
Life in the Creative Lane

Why work in a job that hides your creativity? Find the right school, get trained, and share your unique ideas with the world. Imagine the personal and professional satisfaction that earning your degree in fashion design, graphic design, interior design, or digital arts could bring.

2008-03-13T08:14:00.001-07:00

Creative Careers: Turn Your Passion into a Profitable Profession
By Chloë Dowley

If you're most content when creating and designing, whether it be on paper, on a computer screen, or even on your living room floor, consider yourself lucky. The world needs more innovative thinkers, and with the right training you could make a living using your natural artistic inclinations.

Here are 5 career ideas for the creative mind:
1. Marketing & Advertising

Use your creativity to land a corner office as you bring together your business brain and artistic soul.

- Training: With a marketing degree, your creative nature can earn lucrative contracts and profits, whether you choose to work in business, entertainment, media, or any other field of your liking. Earn an MBA degree and give yourself a chance to really work your way up the corporate ladder.

- Salary: Advertising GMs earned median hourly wages of $55.06 in 2004.

2. Digital Graphic Arts

Get in on this growing multi-billion dollar profession that includes career opportunities in entertainment, print media, the internet, television, movies, business, and more.

- Training: You'll need graphic arts training from a respected art school, where you can apply your creative vision with the most recent software applications. After art school, a world of cutting-edge careers becomes available. You can specialize in, 3d animation, web design, marketing design, and even video game design. If you can visualize it, you can design it.

- Salary: Average salaries in digital graphic design professions range from $50,000 to over $60,000.
3. Fashion Design & Merchandising

There's always room for the next Vera Wang or Calvin Klein in this highly competitive field. If you have an eye for style, you may be suited for a career in fashion.

- Training: Two years of fashion school training is typically required for most entry-level jobs. If you've ever dreamed of seeing your creations on thousands of people, fashion school is the perfect way to focus your talents.

- Salary: $55,840 was the median annual salary in 2004.
4. Culinary Arts & Hospitality Management

Make mouths water while you make a living. Or, if you prefer to work outside of the kitchen, a career as a restaurant manager might be your cup of tea.

- Training: To become a chef or restaurant manager at a premier restaurant, a minimum of two years of culinary arts school or hospitality management training is essential. After that, the world is your oyster. You can focus your talents on food preparation and presentation, customer service, finance and budget, employee relations, or all the above.

- Perks: Median hourly earnings were $14.75 in 2004.
5. Interior Design

An eye for colors, textiles, and spatial relations is key in this profession. You can choose to be a general interior decorator, or specialize in areas such as kitchen and bath design.

- Training: Complete an interior design training program, and put in one to three years as a designer's apprentice. Twenty-three states require you to complete a licensing exam as well. Whether you specialize in home decorating or corporate design, interior design school will give you the tools you need to create dream interiors for your clients.

- Salary: Interior designers earned a median salary of $40,670 in 2004.
Tips for Success

The same great features that attract you to creative occupations are compelling thousands of other qualified individuals as well. Use these tips to set yourself apart from the masses.
1. Do Your Research

Interview a professional in the field about the best and worst parts of their jobs and follow them around for a day to see the reality of the job.
2. Train for Success

Most jobs in the creative sector are competitive, so the more creative training you get, the better qualified you may be for a position. Find an accredited educational program that can prepare you with the skills you need for your chosen career.
3. Build Your Portfolio

In the design and creative fields, your work represents you. Save copies of your finished products to show potential employers.
4. Network

Meet as many professionals as you can. The more people you know, the greater your chances of finding a job.

There's no doubt that your hobby could become a full-fledged profession. Are you ready to get the education and career training you need to take you there?