Discover Yourself Blog

Surviving a Professional Setback

Wed, 16 May 2012 12:59:00 GMT

Perhaps that interview for your dream job did not go as well as you expected, you have a new boss or your soon-to-be business partner decided to walk away. Maybe you did not get the promotion you wanted or you are just feeling overwhelmed. Regardless of the situation, change is inevitable in the workplace. Here are some tips for surviving a professional setback:

Take some time to absorb the situation. Do not put added pressure on yourself to bounce back with immediacy. Whether you are angry, disappointed, surprised or confused about what has taken place, it is usually best to let your emotions subside before responding or reacting. Doing so too soon could force you into making a rash decision which you may regret later. You will bounce back. Just give yourself some well-deserved time to regroup. While you may not have been able to control what set you back, you can influence how you move forward.

Think things through. Try to understand exactly what happened. Could you have done anything differently or better? Is there anything you can do moving forward to protect yourself if a situation such as this one should happen again? There is a lesson to be learned from most situations so think about what you can learn from this one. It will help you to accept what has happened if you can take something from it.

Talk about it. Keeping a positive attitude in times of stress is easier said than done. The last thing you may want to do when you have experienced a professional setback is to talk about it. However, you can have a wonderful support system in your family and friends as well as current and former co-workers. For many, a setback is a good time to work with a professional coach who will focus on helping you continue to achieve a career that builds on your strengths. Whether they are providing a support system, professional advice, mentoring or helping you network, other people can truly provide the encouragement and support you need in a time of uncertainty.

Rally around your strengths. When you are at a crossroads, your strengths will get you through. Professionally, you know what you have to offer your current employer or perspective new employers. In times of uncertainty your strengths are going to guide you. Remember, you will not be successful if you are not utilizing your strengths and even if you did experience a setback, it is only temporary, you still have those strengths to rely on and build upon.

There is no question that change is going to happen in your professional life. However, a setback does not have to stop you in your tracks or derail you from your goals. A setback can actually, if handled well, lead you on an exciting new path of opportunity.

When It Is Time for a Change

Fri, 27 Apr 2012 00:03:00 GMT

There may come a time when you hear that inner voice saying that it is time for a change. Change is an inevitable part of life, even if we are not sure whether it is the right time to make a move. The following might help you to know for sure:

- When you feel yourself getting pulled in a direction that does not feel comfortable, it may be time for a change.

- When you do not know what is expected of you at work or are not given the resources to do your job, it may be time for a change.

- When your employer cares only about your performance and not your personal development, it may be time for a change.

- When your opinions don't seem to matter and you are not made to feel as if your work is important, it may be time for a change.

- When you do not have the opportunity to do what you do best and you are not given opportunities to learn and grow, it may be time for a change.

- When you have found yourself in a role that requires you to play to your weaknesses, it may be time for a change.

- When the voice in your head keeps telling you that there is more out there for you, it may be time for a change.

The bottom line is that no one knows you better than you do. Not your employers or your employees, not your co-workers, not even your friends or your family. Others may seem to care solely about your performance rather than your satisfaction. Yet, as we know, each person's strengths are enduring and unique. Your successes and achievements are not accidental. They are based on your strengths. It is up to you to make sure they are being utilized.

Ask yourself this, if you did not have to think about finances, what is it that you would choose to do for a living? What professional tasks make you feel most energized and fulfilled and eager to grow? How can you have the type of workplace where you get to leverage your strengths and passion?

If your answers to those questions vary drastically from what you are currently doing in the workplace, it may be time for a change. Take control of the situation and create your own change.

5 Steps to a Fabulous New Job

Wed, 11 Apr 2012 11:59:00 GMT

It's spring. This time of year many companies are hiring and many people are looking to make a change. It is no surprise then that when you are looking for a new job it is important to get your resume in order. After all, your resume is like your personal sales tool. Ideally, yours should make an immediate impact and stand out from the many others that the hiring manager will receive.

Yet updating and proofreading your resume is just one piece of the puzzle when getting a fabulous new job. Consider these five steps:

1. Identify what is most important to you. You can do this by creating a list. What is it that you absolutely must have in your new opportunity, what you absolutely must avoid and perhaps even include what you are willing to accept. For example, are you willing to travel? What type of boss do you work best with? What do you like/dislike most about your current or most recent job?

2. Do your homework. Ask people about the companies where you might want to work. Find out about the culture of the organization and the leadership. Check them out online via their website, Linkedin and Google alerts. Look for any recent news from the company. Follow their pages on Facebook, Twitter or Google+.

3. Watch your persona, both online and off. Your resume and interviews are not the only way for perspective employers to get to know you. Keep in mind that companies are likely researching you as well. First impressions are as important as ever. Think about your Linkedin, Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest or other social media accounts. Are you representing the person you want a potential employer to see?

4. Put yourself out there. If you don't put yourself out there, no one will know about you. It is as simple as that. Make connections. Utilize Linkedin. Ask mutual contact if they will connect you to someone at a company that you have researched. Show that perspective employer why you are relevant and offer value to their organization. Highlight your strengths and explain how you utilize them for success.

5. Ask questions and listen closely. Be prepared with questions that are important to you. Use the interview process to get answers regarding the company, position, department and the person or people to whom you would be reporting. Listen closely to the answers. Is the interviewer avoiding or sidestepping a direct response to your question? It will help you identify whether the position will provide the best compromise of what you want and what you want to avoid by asking the right questions and listening carefully to the responses.

Remember, it is never too late to make a change in your career, to try a new industry or to reenter the workforce. Just be confident, be patient, and leverage these five steps towards a fabulous new job. Good luck!

Finding Success Through Strengths

Wed, 04 Apr 2012 13:56:00 GMT

You may think that successful people can do it all, and they even manage to look good while doing it. Yet success is not about doing it all. In reality what makes someone successful is having mastered the art of utilizing their strengths.

We all have our own definitions of success. Yet you will not be successful, regardless of your definition, if you are not using your strengths. In order to use your strengths, you first have to know your strengths. Once we know our strengths we can use them to propel us forward in our careers and in life.

Here are some questions to help you recognize your true strengths:

-What parts of your current or previous job are/were you most passionate about?
-Where have you had the greatest personal or professional success?
-What would your friends say you are best at? What have they come to you or rely on you for?
-What do you most love to learn or read about?
-What types of activities do you find yourself volunteering for at work or in your personal life?
-What types of skills or new techniques do you pick up relatively quickly?
-Where do you get your most personal satisfaction in your current or previous career?

Take some time to think about these questions in depth. Write down your answers and think about the why within them. Do you see any patterns or notice any similarities? Do you recognize which activities make you feel the most invigorated? Once you take some time think about the activities which make you feel most empowered, passionate, enthusiastic and confident, you will have started to identify your strengths.

From the time we are evaluated in class as children, we are told what we need to improve upon. While improving upon our weaknesses is certainly helpful, capitalizing on our strengths will make us even stronger performers and lead us further down the road to success.

Do You Know Your Weaknesses?

Mon, 26 Mar 2012 22:57:00 GMT
Your weaknesses are activities or tasks that leave you feeling depleted. They are the things that frustrate, bore or distract you. Whether at work or in your personal life, surely you can think of activities that you don't enjoy and leave you feeling well, weak. For example, one area that I consider a weakness is bookkeeping. It's not that I cannot do it or even that I don't do it well. It just tends to be one of those tasks that falls to the bottom of my priority list and then when I finally get around to it, I feel frustrated, distracted and tired. Can you think of activities or tasks like this in your life?

It's important to know and understand your weaknesses. You might even want to explore them and write them down. Ask yourself these questions:

- What activities do you just dread doing? Which are the ones you can't wait to get done?

- Which activities do you avoid until the last possible second?

- What tasks leave you feeling unfulfilled or unaccomplished?

- Which tasks do you make the most errors at or have to concentrating on the hardest?

- What types of activities would your friends or family say are not your strength?

The answers to these questions can help you to identify your weaknesses. Take a moment to think about these areas and see if there are any similarities between them. It just might help you to understand why these tasks are draining for you.

Often these are tasks that we need to do, either at work or at home. However, there are things we can learn from our weaknesses and ways to shift things around so we spend less time on them and more time on things that bring us passion and energy.

Perhaps there is another way to look at these activities so that they will not seem so daunting. If you tackled the activities at a different time of day or on a different day of the week, would they still leave you feeling the same? If you worked on your area of weakness with a partner instead of alone, would that help?

The other thing you can do is to trade tasks. Perhaps you can pair up with someone who does not mind that specific task and make a trade for one that you prefer to do but is a weakness for the other person. If you are in a management position at work it might be easier to find a direct report who would be willing to take on the task which drains you, leaving you time to be more productive by focusing on your strengths. In any group setting from a family to an organization to a department at work, this suggestion can actually come in quite handy while at the same time promoting the concept of teamwork.

While it is more than likely that we will always have some responsibilities we dislike, it is possible to shift the balance so that you spend more time focused on activities that leverage your strengths and less time on your weaknesses.

What weaknesses can you identify and tackle today?

Why Professional Coaching is Beneficial

Tue, 21 Feb 2012 16:55:00 GMT
If you are at a crossroads in your career, if you are struggling with building a great team, if you are wondering whether to pursue that new job or even about going out on your own, you may want to consider partnering with a coach. A professional coach works with clients to overcome both internal and external obstacles to success. Leaders at all levels of their career can benefit from coaching for a variety of reasons.

So how can a professional coach help? Working with a coach can provide:

Clarity. A coach will work with you to define your strengths and your career goals. A coach will ask you the questions that will bring out your passions so you can establish your priorities. Together you can talk through ideas so you can determine whether they are worthwhile to pursue.

Planning. Together with your coach you will determine the best approach to reaching your career goals. Ultimately the game plan will be yours to develop and yours to pursue, but your coach will be there to guide you toward your goals.

Confidence. Too often we are our own worst enemy. We psyche ourselves out. We get stuck on the what ifs. Your coach will work with you to set aside those inner criticisms and gain the confidence to face your challenges. Your coach will support you while you work to maximize your true potential.

Accountability. Your coach will not hold you accountable, but by working with a coach you will hold yourself accountable to the items discussed in your coaching sessions. You will be so much more likely to achieve your long term goals if you hold yourself accountable to each step in the process.

A coach is similar to a personal fitness trainer. A personal trainer pushes clients like you to achieve the highest level of physical performance. The benefit of a trainer is that he or she will push you harder than you would on your own and will not let you give up on yourself. You are likely to achieve your fitness goals faster with the help of a personal trainer.

A professional coach focuses on helping you achieve a career that builds on your strengths. A coach will challenge you, support you, encourage you and guide you towards achieving your professional goals. Is it time for you to consider coaching?

What Your Resume Should Really Say About You

Tue, 14 Feb 2012 19:37:00 GMT
Most of us have the same resume. It consists of a list of jobs we have held in the past with a few bullet points telling the reader about the responsibilities for each role. While this has been standard practice for creating a resume, it does not necessarily show us in the best light.

Think about this for a moment. Does your resume highlight your strengths or your experiences?

Showing a potential employer your strengths is a great way to compete in today's labor market. This will also help to ensure that you are leveraging those strengths in your next role or position, which in turn, gives you continued motivation for success.

Take a look at your resume for a moment. Does it say, anywhere, where you are naturally talented? For example, let's say that you work in a strategic environment and your best asset is being able to see the big picture and create vision. Does your resume reflect that?

A Customer Service Manager might love helping to solve problems for other people. A school teacher might feel strongest when empowering the future generation. The chef might feel her best when she creates a unique combination of flavors. The salesperson might feel the most satisfaction not just for generating a sale, but for making a seamless match between a buyer and the right product for that buyer's needs. These are all examples of strengths which should be included on a resume. This is what a future employer wants to know about you before meeting with you in person. This is also how to differentiate yourself from the rest of the pack.

Do not wait until you go to a personal interview to reveal your strengths. In today's competitive market, you may not get to the interview if your resume is not generating a compelling story to the perspective employer.

Here are some things to consider. Which tasks in your current or previous roles have made you feel the most excited and energized? Which tasks felt like the most fun? Which ones did you look forward to tackling? Why did they make you feel this way? The likelihood is that these tasks allowed you to play to your strengths, those activities which you have power and passion around. They probably made you feel challenged in the way that you prefer to be challenged, so in turn, they felt effortless. Your resume should reflect these strengths.

Now it is time to go take another look at your resume. How can you modify it to ensure that your strengths are really coming through? Employers do not just want to know what you have already done. They want to know what you can do for them now and into the future. So make sure that you are sharing your strengths with potential employers. Both of you will benefit.

Why Being Busy Isn't Enough

Mon, 23 Jan 2012 13:48:00 GMT
Your life is busy, whether you are a soccer mom, a non-profit volunteer, a homeroom parent, a business owner or all of the above. You may be busy doing good things and you may be good at the things you are doing. But are you satisfied?

Is there a little voice inside telling you that there must be something more to life?

You see, busy is not directly related to satisfied. There may come a time, perhaps it is when your current job has started to bore you to tears, when your kids are heading into school full time or when you hear that nagging voice inside you that you realize that busy is not enough for you anymore.

The underlying reason for that realization is that just because you are busy, it does not mean that you are utilizing your strengths. When we go through life not using our strengths, we tend to feel lower levels of satisfaction, even if we are doing good things and good at the things we are doing.

The term strength refers to a combination of your natural talents, your skill sets and your aptitudes toward specific areas. It also refers to your passions; those items which excite and motivate you.

You may find that you absolutely love being the homeroom mom because it is the perfect combination of organizing class activities and socializing with the other parents. On the other hand, you may find that you dread the responsibilities of homeroom mom and wonder why on earth you ever volunteered for such a thankless job in the first place. These same feelings can happen whether you are homeroom mom or heading up a new project at work, depending upon whether the situation plays to your strengths. There is no right or wrong when it comes to what makes us feel satisfied since we all have a unique set of strengths.

So what can we do to utilize our strengths?

First, we need to get to know our strengths. We need to truly pinpoint what it is that propels us to higher levels of achievement and satisfaction. This can be done using online assessment tools, personal observations and in-depth discussion with a coach or consultant. The second step is to identify untapped opportunities in your life where you can use your strengths. Perhaps it is by volunteering for a task force or by starting a new business venture. Lastly, you can utilize your strengths by seizing the opportunities that will transform your life from one of simply being busy to one of feeling accomplished and satisfied!

What Is a Strength?

Mon, 26 Dec 2011 20:28:00 GMT
For years as women we've been conditioned both in our personal and professional lives to identify our weaknesses and to focus on how we can improve them. However, research indicates, that we really only show incremental improvement in those areas over time. It is our areas of strength where we have the most opportunity to grow and develop. To grow, we need to first understand and identify our strengths. Strengths are more than just something we're good at. After all we're all good at something, but do we really enjoy doing it? For example, in my family I am usually the one who is called upon to organize events. Vacations, holiday gatherings, etc., I am typically the one who sets them up, tells everyone what to bring and what time to be there. I am good at this task, no doubt. Most people that know me would say that organizing is a strength of mine. That said I don't consider it one of my strengths because I really don't enjoy doing it. Often when I am through with the task, I feel exhausted and not excited about doing it again.

A strength is something that gives us energy and is something we are really passionate about.
By learning how to use and leverage our strengths more every day, we can experience increases in focus and energy, personal growth, self confidence and career satisfaction. For example, maybe you are a woman who is not currently in the workplace or you work part-time. If this is the case, I bet you spend a lot of time volunteering in various capacities and I also bet that there are times that these volunteer assignments leave you feeling burned out and depleted. A big reason for this may be that you are not leveraging your strengths. Or, perhaps you are a woman who has been in the corporate world for several years and is just not feeling satisfied with what you are doing or where you are going. Understanding your strengths and then building a plan to leverage them in your daily work can help you grow, develop and feel more satisfied with your career.

You see, this concept really does apply to all of us. We just need to make the time to focus on ourselves and discover what it is that brings us the energy and stamina we all desire.

Finding Your Strengths

Mon, 26 Dec 2011 20:26:00 GMT
Once you are clear on the definition of a strength, you need to spend some focused time trying to figure out your individual strengths. Some of our strengths will just jump out at us. We know right away that it is a strength of ours because of the power and passion we experience when doing it. Others may take a little more time and reflection to identify.

Here are a couple of tips for how to go about finding and utilizing your strengths.

Observe

Spend time really observing what you are doing and how you spend your time. Which projects, assignments or activities do you find yourself wanting to work on? When are you really in your zone where time just seems to fly by and you don’t even realize it? When doing tasks and activities, which ones give you a shot of energy? Which ones do you tend to volunteer for over and over? Spend a week or two asking yourself these questions and make some notes of what you think your strengths are.

Ask

Solicit input from others. Although you are the best person to identify your strengths others may be helpful in providing you with some perspective on them. So ask them. What do they think your strengths are? How have they seen you use your strengths?

Focus
Having discovered what your strengths are, it is also vital to then focus on leveraging those strengths. Too often, we focus on what we think we should be doing better. You will never turn weaknesses into strengths so focus on the things that inspire and motivate you.

Identify
Find the projects, opportunities and assignments which utilize your strengths. Stop saying yes to everything or volunteering for things that really don’t interest you just to fill your time. Try a new strategy and offer up your time for the tasks which will leverage your strengths.

Once you start to put these tips into practice, I guarantee that you will notice a difference in how you feel and how you approach where you spend your time. Life is too short. Your time is too valuable. Don’t spend it on things that don’t give you the power and passion you deserve.