Study We all underestimate the power of a thank-you note

Study We all underestimate the power of a thank-you noteStudy We all underestimate the power of a thank-you noteAfter that great interview, we may go home and think vaguely about following up with a thank-you glaubenszeugnis. But then our fears get in the way. Would that be too excessive? Would they even care? we worry, psyching ourselves out from following through on the plan. But a new study published in Psychological Science finds that we underestimate the power of a thank-you message to our detriment.When Amit Kumar and Nicholas Epley of the University of Chicago recruited participants to write thank-you notes via email to someone who had positively changed their life, they found that participants underestimated the positive effect their message would have on the recipient, and overestimated howawkward the recipients would feel about the message. In reality, recipients appreciated and said they felt really happy to get these small missives of gratitude.Miscalculating the positive impact of social connections on oneself, or on others, could keep people from being prosocial enough for their own well-being, Kumar and Epley conclude. Expressing gratitude might not buy everything, but it may buy more than people landseem to expect.Why you should always send a thank-you noteA simple, genuine thank-you note is a powerful act of civility, the researchers write. But we let worries about social awkwardness get in the way of doing it. Age and gender did not make a difference in whether or not you underestimated the power of gratitude. Across experiments, participants appeared overly worried that sending a thank-you note out of the blue would be unwelcome.For participants who worriedWhat will I actually write? and How articulate will I be?, they underestimated how warm and competent the recipient would see them for writing a less-than-perfect letter of gratitude.The first thoughts that may come to mind for people when deciding to express gratitude- their ability to com petently articulate their gratitude- may be an unwarranted barrier to expressing gratitude more often in everyday life, the researchers wrote.Taking the time out of your day to jot down a thank-you note costs you nothing, but the payoff will be big. Dont worry about getting the letter just right. If you are genuine about your message of gratitude, it is likely to be appreciated.

Tips to Get ERP Jobs

Tips to Get ERP JobsTips to Get ERP JobsCompanies are hiring ERP experts to fill ERP jobs and help them get the most from the latest ERP solutions - or update legacy systems - so they deliver seamless information flow, data accuracy and a user-friendly experience.Whether youre an ERP business analyst, an ERP technical/functional analyst, or an ERP technical developer, youre already in demand in todays job market. But there are a number of business and technology trends around ERP, as well as changing user expectations, that youll want to stay attuned to so that you remain marketable. Here are a few to watchDemand for anywhere, anytime accessThird-platform technologies like cloud computing and virtualization and mobility trends like BYOD (Bring Your Own Device) offer users on-demand access to the programs and information they need for work. Not surprisingly, many users want to (and expect to) have this type of access to ERP systems - especially personnel who work remotely or in the field.Many ERP teams are being tasked with assessing and implementing ERP solutions that can be accessed securely from any location. New advances in data compression, business analytics, location analytics and distributed computing are also creating higher user expectations for ERP functionality. With real-time data processing and internal and external data feed analysis, companies can gather the information they need from ERP systems, when they need it, to make more informed business decisions.Many companies are also embracing ERP social collaboration tools, so employees not only can locate the right data, but also the appropriate contacts in the organization to share information with or tap for expertise.The need for specialistsAs technology innovations continue to transform the way ERP systems are designed and used, highly skilled professionals with the right mix of technical and soft skills will be needed for ERP jobs. Their ERP know-how will be essential to helping businesses evolve their current ERP technology, or select and implement a new system that will enable them to achieve strategic goals.With the right software and tools in place, companies can consolidate and make sense of valuable data that would otherwise be left idle, and use those insights to increase efficiency, improve service and customer care, and more.Check out these 10 questions to ask ERP systems experts.Moving forwardThanks to a recent wave of innovation, ERP solutions are helping businesses accomplish more than ever before. Meanwhile, ERP jobs are evolving, too. Look for growth in ERP jobs that focus on supply chain management, customer relationship management, or financial, distribution and project management.And because ERP systems are frequently targeted by hackers, and prone to intentional misuse by insiders, understanding the threats to and vulnerabilities in these systems, and how to mitigate them, will be a valuable skill set for any ERP professional.This post has been updat ed to reflect more current information.

Treat your canvas of life as the true work of art it is

Treat your segeltuchschuh of life as the true work of art it isTreat your segeltuchschuh of life as the true work of art it isWhy do people read poetry? What exactly is it about rhythm and cadence that moves us into deep inner worlds? Better yet, why do Shakespeares sonnets sing so loudly so many generations after their initial ausprgung?One answer, according to the German philosopher Martin Heidegger, is that poetry allows us to transcend the boundaries of literal language so that we can explore corners of human consciousness that we all intuitively recognize but dont quite know how to put into sentences. It connects us to our core sense of truth. A poet sees exactly what both you and I see, but the poet goes a step further?- ?she packages that insight into an expression that momentarily washes away the clouds in front of our eyes.Heidegger spent a lot of time grappling with what it means to think and to be. But after writing his magnum opus Being and Time, perhaps the most influent ial work of philosophy written in the 20th century, he began to intuit that maybe pure philosophical language wasnt enough to capture this aspect of the human experience, and his later fascination with art was born from this realization. Poetry, he thought, was the fasson that came closest to closing this eu-agrarpolitik between language and experience.One reason literal language struggles to fully capture our lived experience is that, in many ways, life is movement. It flows?- ?dynamically, fluidly?- ?and it does so in a way that cant be captured by the staticity of conventional words that have specific meanings in relation to other words with specific meanings. You may be able to utter the sentence, I am going to walk to the kitchen to get a glass of water, and that sentence may provide you with the utility to communicate what it is you are directing your attention towards, but it misses everything else that occurs in your field of consciousness as you actually get up to grab that glass of water. Adding more sentences may close a few of those gaps, but no matter how many sentences you add, the gap, no matter how small, will always be there. And that last remaining gap?- ?the one that cant be closed by literal language?- ?is where the core of who we are lives.This final gap has been communicated by various poets in various ways, and it has been labeled different things by different philosophers, but the way I like to think about the gap is that its creativity. When you do away with descriptions about what is and what ought to be, you are simply left with a space that expresses itself in a silent, latent way as it moves through you. When you are going to the kitchen to get a glass of water, you are doing that, sure, but you are also expressing your way of being with every step you take, every thing you notice, every object you interact with.A good analogy is that of consciousness as a canvas. Its an analogy I feel I have borrowed from somewhere without realizi ng, but ever since its stepped into my mind, its captured my imagination in an interesting way. When we are born, biologically, we may not be a blank slate, but experientially, we are. Our field of consciousness has a direction that it is biased towards, but mostly, we can think of it as a canvas without any paint on it. Objects havent yet been fully conceptualized, preferences havent yet been fully imprinted, and our idea of a separate self hasnt yet been fully formed. Eventually, however, with time, this changes. We see more, experience more, interact more, and slowly, we paint this canvas, one color at a time, one shape at a time, until this painting tells a story, a specific story?- ?the story of our lives.Its this deeply colored story that captures our individual being- ?a thing that cant be totally captured in literal words?- ?and its this individual being that expresses our creativity. Now, this creativity is simply how we connect separate, disparate things in our awareness i nto something new as we interact with reality. Each time we do anything in the world, some part of it is unconsciously expressed. The thing to note, however, is that this creativity isnt always the kind that we should be expressing in certain contexts.Every brush of paint that connects to our canvas of consciousness is really born from an interaction. Whenever you have an experience, there is a broader setting with things, objects, and subjects around you, but what you take away from each experience depends on which of behauptung things, objects, and subjects you notice and interact with, because the interaction is what leaves the imprint, and this imprint is what shapes the future actions, future states, and future movements of an individual being.When we do the work to pick out the right environments, focusing on the right interactions within the experiences of those environments, we create an internal story that works, one that is cohesive and whole?- ?one that is expressed like a work of art. When we are aimless about the interactions we have, we get forced into internal states of disorder?- ?ones that, again, paint the canvas of consciousness but do so in a way that is scattered and messy broken and inconsistent creative, sure, but never artistic.When it comes to an individual being, the difference between the expression of artistic creativity and non-artistic creativity is a deep-seated logic or value-system that directs the things they pay attention to within their experience of a setting?- ?the things they choose to absorb as interactions in their attempt to add new colors to their canvas of consciousness a canvas that they creatively project onto the world through actions.There are some people who when they speak, or when they move, or when they listen, or when they make things, or when they look at you, they do so in a way that hints at a deeper confidence and authenticity, one that begs for an explanation but doesnt need it, one that is pure even wh en the impurities beneath show themselves. They have a secret, and its a secret that reaches beyond superficiality?- ?a secret that, sometimes, they themselves dont know the content of. But no matter what it is, no matter how its expressed, its always the result of work and intention, suffering and reconciliation.Such people, once they have done what they need to, they discover a core, and this core is represented in the form of a cohesive painting that has colored their consciousness, a painting which is unconsciously shared with the world every time they do something, whether meaningful or mundane. They choose the interactions within their experiences carefully, and these interactions in turn allow them to express themselves with ease.On some level, this may sound trivial. But if you think about it, it slowly becomes clear that this nuance matters, and it matters because its something we all pick up on in ways that go beyond hollow words. Rather, the only words that can describe t his sense are words loaded with colors and shapes and sounds and movements and metaphors. And there is one poem in particular that I think captures this better than most.Few people would put Charles Bukowskis writing at the level of beauty and abstraction that some people think of when they think of true poetry, and maybe its true what they say?- ?that maybe it wasnt poetry at all. But what he did do better than most was express himself honestly, and without honesty, there is no truth, so even if true poetry was beyond him, poeticism was not. And in spite of his faults, he knew what meant to treat this canvas of consciousness, the thing that we call life, as a work of art. I write about it as a refined, logical expression of creativity. Him? He simply called it style.Style is the answer to everything.A fresh way to approach a dull or dangerous thingTo do a dull thing with style is preferable to doing a dangerous thing without itTo do a dangerous thing with style is what I call artBu llfighting can be an artBoxing can be an artLoving can be an artOpening a can of sardines can be an artNot many have styleNot many can keep styleI have seen dogs with more style than men,although not many dogs have style.Cats have it with abundance.When Hemingway put his brains to the wall with a shotgun,that was style.Or sometimes people give you styleJoan of Arc had styleJohn the BaptistJesusSocratesCaesarGarca Lorca.I have met men in jail with style.I have met more men in jail with style than men out of jail.Style is the difference, a way of doing, a way of being done.Six herons standing quietly in a schwimmbecken of water,or you, naked, walking out of the bathroom without seeing me.Want to think and live smarter? Zat Rana publishes a free weekly newsletter for 30,000+ readers atDesign Luck.Thisarticlewas originally published onDesign Luck.

How to Submit Your Fiction to McSweeneys

How to Submit Your Fiction to McSweeneysHow to Submit Your Fiction to McSweeneysDave Eggers founded McSweeneys in 1996 in order to provide a home to work being rejected elsewhere (though contributors have since included David Foster Wallace, Rick Moody, and Heidi Julavits). The New York Times accurately described the journal as quirky, whimsical and slightly Victorian, so read a few issues to be sure your work fits. McSweeneys is a publishing company based in San Francisco. As well as operating a daily humor website, they also publish Timothy McSweeneys Quarterly Concern, the Believer, and an ever-growing selection of books under various imprints. You can buy all of these things from their online store. Theyre also transitioning to a nonprofit and would greatly appreciate your help. You can support them today by making a donation. Cover Letter Advice For new writers, McSweeneys has encouraging words about cover letters Please keep yours brief, though we do like to hear from peopl e who read and like the magazine. Were notlage concerned about writing degrees or past publications, though, so dont be daunted if you dont have an MFA or much in the way of previously published work. Guidelines for Book Submissions While submissions are open, please send along manuscripts that meet the following criteria- we remain, as always, incredibly excited to read your work. And please note that we only accept electronic manuscripts. Poetry submissions are addressed further down this page, and do not belong on our Submittable site. Because we are a very small organization with an even smaller editorial department, it often takes us a long time to respond to our submitters. We appreciate your patience with us as we work on getting to your manuscript. LENGTHThere are no guidelines for length. DEGREE OF COMPLETENESSComplete manuscripts only, with the exception of cookbooks- we are happy to accept cookbook proposals or full manuscripts. Please do not submit illustrated works. Multiple submissions are fine, but if your manuscript is accepted elsewhere, please withdraw your work from our system. If youve read all the above, please continue to our Submittable site. Guidelines for Web Submissions We gladly consider unsolicited works, but because we are a very small organization with an even smaller editorial department, it often takes us a long time to respond to our submitters. We appreciate your patience with us as we work on getting to your piece. SUBJECT MATTERIs addressed below, toward the end.LENGTHIs up to you.FORMATTINGIts better if you dont use colors or Fun Fonts or strange formatting.YOUR CONTACT INFORMATIONShould be on your submission- not just on the cover letter. Cover letters can disappear. Please include your name, mailing address, phone number, and email address, ideally on every page.AUTHOR BIOSFeel free to include a brief biography of yourself.PAYMENTFluctuates somewhat, but has been impressing contributors recently. Contributors are paid at the time of publication. RESPONSE TIMECan be anywhere between a few weeks and nine months. Please be patient. Were really reading as fast as we can.SPECIAL ISSUES AND READING PERIODSBecause our staff is so small, we arent continually reading submissions for the quarterly. More often than not, we read in month-long bursts, when were approaching the deadline for a new issue. And special issues sometimes create longer delays in our response time. For example, if we just closed an issue, and we know that the issue after that will be devoted to political journalism, that would mean we wouldnt be reading new fiction submissions for up to four months, as we prepared the journalism issue. Our response time, then, can vary a great deal. And given that were a quarterly, and not a weekly or monthly, we ask that all submitters bear in mind the very slow nature of the entire enterprise.

Dental Assistant Resume Skills at a Glance

Dental Assistant Resume Skills at a Glance Diploma and certificate programs are fantastic choices for prospective students appearing to enter the workforce quickly and dont foresee themselves undertaking more education. Externship students should pass a background check and a potential drug test. Prospective dental assistants must be aware that the states offering the greatest salaries often require the greatest levels of training. Technical Skills Pediatric dental assistants are expected to aid dentists during examinations and dental procedures, thus they ought to have the necessary technical skills to be able to achieve that. Dental Assistant Resume Skills Features Fully being a dental assistant can be invaluable for a person who wishes to go for a career in dentistry. Organizational skills To create the task of the dentist easier, the assistant should be certain that all clinical items are in the perfect places, particularly during treatment. Nobody knows better than a d ental assistant a very good smile creates a terrific first impression. If youre searching to turn into a dental assistant, you will want to look to your resume first. Dental Assistant Resume Skills Explained Before you begin to doubt yourself to take another degree in medical billing, return to your Medical assistant resume. The endeavor of a dental assistant is a blend of clinical in addition to administrative duties. When you turn into a dental assistant, youre delight in a career which is not only fulfilling, but also rewarding. The lead assistant is also predicted to report any troubles with staff associated with proper procedures and discipline so that they could possibly be addressed promptly. What Needs to be Done About Dental Assistant Resume Skills Before You Miss Your Chance Some elements of your job might be of more value to an employer than you could think. The subject of dental assisting currently provides an extremely strong job outlook. Youre so ready for y our very first job for a phelbotomist As you think of your abilities and search for opportunities, you need to be open minded about the jobs you are considering. Theres strong demand for dental assistants across the nation, but you will need a polished and targeted resume if you wish to stick out from the crowd. Even though you can find tons of dental assistant resume examples on the net, a lot of them are for individuals who already have professional experience. Our advanced dental X-ray course is ideal for current and previous students of WDAS in addition to practicing dental assistants seeking to expand their understanding of taking thorough and accurate dental images. The dental business is well known to be one that is rapidly changing. Next item would become your degree of experience. Everyone values accuracy and competence, regardless of what job youre applying for. Youre going to need a very wide skill set to be successful. Make sure that you have ready a minumum o f one example for a time you demonstrated skills from every category listed here. Dental operations need many actions and equipments. Dental hygiene professionals require a mixture of soft and difficult skills to be successful. The dental profession demands knowledge of and capacity to use tools. Organizational skills Dental assistants should have good organization abilities. The Foolproof Dental Assistant Resume Skills Strategy The work description will most likely incorporate a list of required skills. For example, if a work application format doesnt incorporate a list of skills, however youd like to contain you, you want to attain that. There are many types of resumes, nevertheless, you should remain sure to generate your studienplan vitae and resume cover letter with your own private touch. Type of Resume The exact first step to think about prior to building a resume is to pick the sort of the resume. Finally, think about the kind of dental clinic youre applying for. Sterilization skills Treatment tools used on patients must be properly cleaned and set in a wholesome condition for future usage, to steer clear of infection. Your practice is well known for its innovative dental practices and in depth patient support. Becoming a Dental Assistant is an excellent approach to enter the health profession and help men and women in their day to day lives without the substantial time investment required by a complete dentistry degree. Being he isnt a very conventional career choice. He must be able to get along with others and get the job done. A good sample dental assistant resume will place some emphasis on such individuals capacity to generate the consumers feel at ease. Basically, if its listed in the work ad, it needs to be in your resume somewhere, at the very least a couple of times. At WDAS, you are going to learn whatever you want to learn about the dental assisting profession, in addition to how to successfully apply, interview, and receiv e a job. When all your experience is in 1 field, the notion of a career change can be quite intimidating. As stated, the utmost effective means to add skills to your healthcare assistant resume is to include things like the precise ones the work description mentions.

Create a Competitive Edge through Branding, Relationship Building, and Growth

Create a Competitive Edge through Branding, Relationship Building, and Growth No matter your occupation, in order to be successful in your career you need to remain cognizant of the business landscape where you are entrenched. Staying ignorant of your surroundings leads only to being left behind, so it is important to continually assess where you are and how you can recreate your competitive edge over your professional peers. In your trek to remain competitive and gain ground on your competition, consider concepts of branding, building relationships, growing, and maintaining your work/life balance. Like all buzzstimmt genaus, the word branding has become a bit overused, but the concept remains pivotal in creating a personal image that is memorable and leaves people impressed. But branding gains much of its value in making clear precisely how you are different from your peers and which skills you p ossess that makes you stand out among your competitors. Any self-marketing plan requires that considerable effort be expended in creating a fleshed-out personal brand.Beyond your outward image, creating networks of contacts is also vital to stay competitive, and the key is to focus more on the quality of your relationships rather than the sheer number of contacts you have collected over time. What you want is a group of people who can directly influence your career in a positive way and those who have the most useful feedback to offer. This may include customers, managers, and employees, among other professional connections. It is crucial to keep open communication channels, and build relationships with those who can impact your career.When you become complacent, or otherwise stagnant in your current station ,you lose a degree of flexibility and creativity that is necessary to continue being successful into the future. Being stagnant means putting too much focus on becoming entrench ed in current projects and the other smaller crises that make up your day-to-day life. This affects your ability to remain open to change and accepting new challenges that require a sense of daring and creativity that lead to innovation. This effect dulls competitive advantage because it forces you into the crowd that you are trying to stand above. Continuing to grow means updating your skills, learning new technology, or even shifting your career altogether. The point is to keep evolving and remain open to new opportunities.Building a successful and fulfilling career is entirely reliant on balancing your work priorities with the other aspects of your life. But obtaining a work/life balance is not so much about equally divvying up your time so as to give each portion of your life equal time and energy. It is about finding the best combination of focus and to meet the dynamic demands of your work life and personal life without sacrificing your overall sense of well-being. It is impor tant to pay attention to where you are, where you want to go, and how well you are getting there. Once you understand your goals and what it is that sets you apart from the crowd and what you need to do in order to keep moving forward, you can start allocating your focus, energy, and time to standing out.

5 Career-Change Myths Exploded

5 Career-Change Myths Exploded 5 Career-Change Myths Exploded However,whats also beginning to slowly change is the expectation that a workerwill have one career for their entire life. In todays world, its possible you might start your career as a high-powered accountant and end it as a chilled-out tree surgeon. Massive forces are acting on the workplace e.g., greater independence and self-determination, globalization, automation, unprecedented levels of economic and corporate instability, etc., which means that very few career paths can be truly considered secure.What I mean to say is that we are moving into a career-change world soon, thecareer-changers will be the rule, rather than the exception. And many people will become multi-career-changers that is, many people will change careers multiple times throughout their lives.Themulti-career-change world is a new and untested environment for employeesand employers alike. As a result, many myths prevail that can hinder workers who are seeking to change careers these myths may also causeemployers to pause when looking atcareer-changer candidates.Therefore,I thought it would be useful todisprovesome of the myths surrounding career changes and career-changers. Doing so will help us build a healthier environment in the talent ecosystem.Myth No. 1 The Average Person Will Have Seven Careers in Their LifetimeThestatistic that the average person will have seven careers in their lifetime has been floating around the Web for some time now. However, this stat welches never really plausible, and now it has been roundly debunked by many researchers. In my personal opinion, I would expect that the average person might squeeze in two or threecareers in a lifetime.Myth No. 2 You Cant Change Careers, or If You Do, It ComesWith aHigh Risk of FailureAlot of people view career changes in a negative light, but this perspective is not totally justified. Research from the American Institute for Economic Research (AIER) found thats uccess rates for career changes are astonishingly high. The institute found that 82 percent of people over 47 who tried to move to new careers were successful in making that change. The truth, then, is that you canchanges careers and if you do, you have a high chance of doing so successfully.Myth No. 3 Youll Have to Take a Pay Cut If You Switch CareersAccording to the AIER study cited above, sideways career changes are possible.The AIER found that, for68 percent of career changers, pay remained the same (18 percent) or increased (50 percent). Thirty-one percent of courage changers took pay cuts.So, while pay cuts are areality for many career changers, they are not the norm in fact, career changers who saw their pay decrease were in the minority.Myth No. 4 You Are Too Old to Change CareersRemember when the AIER found that82 percentof people over the age of 47 successfully changed career? I also want to mentionresearch from the AARP Public Policy Institute, which found that63 percen t of older workers who went through long periods of unemployment found jobs in completely new lines of work.The point here is that career change is an option open to anyone, no matter their age.Myth No. 5 Needing to Change Careers Is a Sign of Bad Career PlanningSeveral pieces of research show that our personalities change over the course of our lives. And as your personality and values change, its only natural that your career expectations and needs might also change.So, needing to change careers is not necessarily a sign of bad career planning or failure in you current career path. Rather, deciding to change careers can be an acknowledgement of the natural change in your personal priorities and preferences as you age.

6 Steps to Coach Employees Effectively

6 Steps to Coach Employees Effectively6 Steps to Coach Employees EffectivelyThe first step in any effort to improve employee performance is counseling or coaching. Counseling or coaching is part of the day-to-day interaction between a teamberater and an employee who reports to her, or an HR professional and line managers. Coaching often provides positive feedback about employee contributions. Employees need to know when they are effective contributors. By providing this positive feedback, you are also letting the employee know the actions and contributions that youd like to reinforce so that you see more of them. Coaching When Performance Issues Exist At the same time, regular coaching brings performance issues to an employees attention when they are minor. Your coaching feedback assists the employee to correct these issues before they become significant detractions from herperformance. The goal of performance coaching is not to make the employee feel bad, nor is it provided to s how how much the HR professional or manager know. The goal of coaching is to work with the employee to solve performance problems and to improve the work of the employee, the team, and the department. Employees who respond positively to coaching and improve their performance can become valued contributors to the success of the business. Employees who fail to improve will find themselves placed on a formal performance improvement plan, known as a PIP. This sets up a formal process wherein the manager meets regularly with the underperforming employee to provide coaching and feedback. At the meetings, they also evaluate how well the employee is performing in achieving the performance goals that were enumerated in the PIP. Generally, by the time an employee has received a PIP, Human Resources staff are significantly involved in both the meetings and in the review of the employees progress and performance. Employees who fail to improve when on the PIP are likely to find their employment terminated. Second Example of Performance Coaching In a second example of the use of performance coaching, managers can use performance coaching to help employees who are effective contributors improve and become even more effective contributors. Done well, coaching can help an employee continuously improve their skills, experience, and ability to contribute. From years of observing managers coaching, the time managers spend in performance coaching with their best, fruchtwein contributing employees is time well spent. It is more likely to produce increasing results for the organization and for the managers department and priorities. It is ironic that many managers find that they spend the majority of their time with their troubled, or underperforming employees. This is despite the fact that the most significant value from their time and energy investment comes from the opposite priority. Coaching is an effective tool for managers to deploy in their efforts to help employees succ eed, and especially help employees increase their skills and their potential opportunities for promotion or lateral moves to more interesting positions. 6 Coaching Steps Use these six steps to provide effective supportive coaching to your reporting employees. Show confidence in the employees ability and willingness to solve the problem. Ask him or her for help in solving the problem or improving their performance. Ask the employee to join in with you with the goal of increasing the employees effectiveness as a contributor to your organization.Describe the performance problem to the employee. Focus on the problem or behavior that needs improvement, not on the person. Use descriptions of the behavior with examples so that you and the employee share meaning. Ask for the employees view of the situation. Do they see the same problem or opportunity that you do? Determine whether issues exist that limit the employees ability to perform the task or accomplish the objectives. Four comm on barriers are time, training, tools, and temperament. Determine how to remove these barriers. Determine whether the employee needs your help to remove the barriers- a key role of a manager- or if he is able to tackle them by himself.Discuss potential solutions to the problem or improvement actions to take. Ask the employee for ideas on how to correct the problem, or prevent it from happening again. With a high performing employee, talk about continuous improvement. Agree on a written action plan that lists what the employee, the manager, and possibly, the HR professional, will do to correct the problem or improve the situation. Identify the core goals that the employee must meet to achieve the appropriate level of performance that the organization needs.Set a date and time for follow-up. Determine if a critical feedback path is needed, so the manager knows how the employee is progressing. Offer positive encouragement. Express confidence in the employees ability to improve. Recogni ze, however, that the only person who is in charge of their performance improvement is the employee. As much as you try to help, he is the one in charge. You can help your reporting employees improve their current performance, or in the case of an already effective employee, help them become more effective. Performance coaching is a powerful tool when managers take advantage of its usefulness.

Your Bar Dues At Work

Your Bar Dues At WorkYour Bar Dues At WorkTo much deserved ridicule (see also here), The New York State Bar Associations Special Committee on Balanced Lives in the Law has concluded that the majority of lawyers find it nearly impossible to achieve work/life balance. This study took 3 years.This is sure to join Attractive Women Are Distracting To MenFaraway Objects Are More Difficult to See and Swallowing More Than One Magnet Is Dangerousin the pantheon of truly useless studiesAnyway, isnt work/life balance a misnomer? As a wise man once said, scales balance in all sorts of ways. -posted by brian