LinkedIn Maintenance Do This Right Now (or else)

LinkedIn Maintenance Do This Right Now (or else) I just updated the instructions which changed sometime between Feb and Nov 2012.  Click here to see how to easily backup your LinkedIn Profile and Recommendations, and DO IT TODAY! I got an e-mail from Susan Ireland, at the Job Lounge.   She asked me if I knew anything about LinkedIn deleting peoples accounts Ive heard a little about this, but mostly just hand-slapping for looking like spammers.   Getting an account deleted can be a huge problem, especially as you use LinkedIn more. She writes about it here (I can almost hear a tear drop on her keyboard as I read it ouch!!!). The two issues are (1) why she was deleted, and (2) what LinkedIn can/will do about it.   I have no idea why she was deleted, and apparently she doesnt either.   As far as she knows, she wasnt doing anything wrong with her LinkedIn account, or LinkedIn connections.   As far as what LinkedIn can or will do, here is their response: At this time we do not have a recommended back up system for your account. Once something has been deleted there is not a back up at this time to recover any information. One thing you can do is copy your profile information and save it as a word document so that you will always have it on your computer. Not very comforting, is it? Here are two absolute must-dos, right now, on LinkedIn and they will take less time than it takes to read this blog post (so do it now!): NEW INSTRUCTIONS HERE Export your contacts. Simply click on Contacts, scroll down to the bottom of the screen and click on Export Connections, and follow that process.   Just leave everything at default and youll end up with your connections in a .csv file, which opens in Excel. Export your profile. Youve probably put a fair amount of thought into creating your profile, right?   What about any references you have gotten?   Simply click on Profile, then find the grayed-out icons above your name, and click on the adobe pdf icon.   This exports your profile, including recommendations, into a very nice, presentable document (kudos to whoever at LinkedIn did that formatting, it is very well-done!).   Heres an image of where the icon is: These are the two most important things for me to grab, if I knew my LinkedIn account might go away.   (1) Who I connected with, which includes e-mail addresses very every single contact, (2) my recommendations   (I can always rethink and recreate a profile, but those recommendations are priceless!). Please, dont even take 2 seconds to comment on this post, just head on over to LinkedIn and do this very easy, very quick maintenance! LinkedIn Maintenance Do This Right Now (or else) I just updated the instructions which changed sometime between Feb and Nov 2012.  Click here to see how to easily backup your LinkedIn Profile and Recommendations, and DO IT TODAY! I got an e-mail from Susan Ireland, at the Job Lounge.   She asked me if I knew anything about LinkedIn deleting peoples accounts Ive heard a little about this, but mostly just hand-slapping for looking like spammers.   Getting an account deleted can be a huge problem, especially as you use LinkedIn more. She writes about it here (I can almost hear a tear drop on her keyboard as I read it ouch!!!). The two issues are (1) why she was deleted, and (2) what LinkedIn can/will do about it.   I have no idea why she was deleted, and apparently she doesnt either.   As far as she knows, she wasnt doing anything wrong with her LinkedIn account, or LinkedIn connections.   As far as what LinkedIn can or will do, here is their response: At this time we do not have a recommended back up system for your account. Once something has been deleted there is not a back up at this time to recover any information. One thing you can do is copy your profile information and save it as a word document so that you will always have it on your computer. Not very comforting, is it? Here are two absolute must-dos, right now, on LinkedIn and they will take less time than it takes to read this blog post (so do it now!): NEW INSTRUCTIONS HERE Export your contacts. Simply click on Contacts, scroll down to the bottom of the screen and click on Export Connections, and follow that process.   Just leave everything at default and youll end up with your connections in a .csv file, which opens in Excel. Export your profile. Youve probably put a fair amount of thought into creating your profile, right?   What about any references you have gotten?   Simply click on Profile, then find the grayed-out icons above your name, and click on the adobe pdf icon.   This exports your profile, including recommendations, into a very nice, presentable document (kudos to whoever at LinkedIn did that formatting, it is very well-done!).   Heres an image of where the icon is: These are the two most important things for me to grab, if I knew my LinkedIn account might go away.   (1) Who I connected with, which includes e-mail addresses very every single contact, (2) my recommendations   (I can always rethink and recreate a profile, but those recommendations are priceless!). Please, dont even take 2 seconds to comment on this post, just head on over to LinkedIn and do this very easy, very quick maintenance! LinkedIn Maintenance Do This Right Now (or else) I just updated the instructions which changed sometime between Feb and Nov 2012.  Click here to see how to easily backup your LinkedIn Profile and Recommendations, and DO IT TODAY! I got an e-mail from Susan Ireland, at the Job Lounge.   She asked me if I knew anything about LinkedIn deleting peoples accounts Ive heard a little about this, but mostly just hand-slapping for looking like spammers.   Getting an account deleted can be a huge problem, especially as you use LinkedIn more. She writes about it here (I can almost hear a tear drop on her keyboard as I read it ouch!!!). The two issues are (1) why she was deleted, and (2) what LinkedIn can/will do about it.   I have no idea why she was deleted, and apparently she doesnt either.   As far as she knows, she wasnt doing anything wrong with her LinkedIn account, or LinkedIn connections.   As far as what LinkedIn can or will do, here is their response: At this time we do not have a recommended back up system for your account. Once something has been deleted there is not a back up at this time to recover any information. One thing you can do is copy your profile information and save it as a word document so that you will always have it on your computer. Not very comforting, is it? Here are two absolute must-dos, right now, on LinkedIn and they will take less time than it takes to read this blog post (so do it now!): NEW INSTRUCTIONS HERE Export your contacts. Simply click on Contacts, scroll down to the bottom of the screen and click on Export Connections, and follow that process.   Just leave everything at default and youll end up with your connections in a .csv file, which opens in Excel. Export your profile. Youve probably put a fair amount of thought into creating your profile, right?   What about any references you have gotten?   Simply click on Profile, then find the grayed-out icons above your name, and click on the adobe pdf icon.   This exports your profile, including recommendations, into a very nice, presentable document (kudos to whoever at LinkedIn did that formatting, it is very well-done!).   Heres an image of where the icon is: These are the two most important things for me to grab, if I knew my LinkedIn account might go away.   (1) Who I connected with, which includes e-mail addresses very every single contact, (2) my recommendations   (I can always rethink and recreate a profile, but those recommendations are priceless!). Please, dont even take 2 seconds to comment on this post, just head on over to LinkedIn and do this very easy, very quick maintenance! LinkedIn Maintenance Do This Right Now (or else) I just updated the instructions which changed sometime between Feb and Nov 2012.  Click here to see how to easily backup your LinkedIn Profile and Recommendations, and DO IT TODAY! I got an e-mail from Susan Ireland, at the Job Lounge.   She asked me if I knew anything about LinkedIn deleting peoples accounts Ive heard a little about this, but mostly just hand-slapping for looking like spammers.   Getting an account deleted can be a huge problem, especially as you use LinkedIn more. She writes about it here (I can almost hear a tear drop on her keyboard as I read it ouch!!!). The two issues are (1) why she was deleted, and (2) what LinkedIn can/will do about it.   I have no idea why she was deleted, and apparently she doesnt either.   As far as she knows, she wasnt doing anything wrong with her LinkedIn account, or LinkedIn connections.   As far as what LinkedIn can or will do, here is their response: At this time we do not have a recommended back up system for your account. Once something has been deleted there is not a back up at this time to recover any information. One thing you can do is copy your profile information and save it as a word document so that you will always have it on your computer. Not very comforting, is it? Here are two absolute must-dos, right now, on LinkedIn and they will take less time than it takes to read this blog post (so do it now!): NEW INSTRUCTIONS HERE Export your contacts. Simply click on Contacts, scroll down to the bottom of the screen and click on Export Connections, and follow that process.   Just leave everything at default and youll end up with your connections in a .csv file, which opens in Excel. Export your profile. Youve probably put a fair amount of thought into creating your profile, right?   What about any references you have gotten?   Simply click on Profile, then find the grayed-out icons above your name, and click on the adobe pdf icon.   This exports your profile, including recommendations, into a very nice, presentable document (kudos to whoever at LinkedIn did that formatting, it is very well-done!).   Heres an image of where the icon is: These are the two most important things for me to grab, if I knew my LinkedIn account might go away.   (1) Who I connected with, which includes e-mail addresses very every single contact, (2) my recommendations   (I can always rethink and recreate a profile, but those recommendations are priceless!). Please, dont even take 2 seconds to comment on this post, just head on over to LinkedIn and do this very easy, very quick maintenance!

How to improve your life with pharmaceuticals

How to improve your life with pharmaceuticals Phone call. It’s Melissa. “Hi,” she says. “Can I come see you today? I can get a flight out of Austin at 5pm.” Of course I say yes. I assume she is breaking up with her boyfriend because she’s pretty much agoraphobic except for going to the stable to ride her horse or going to the office for her job. Both of which require only sporadic household departures. “No. Everything is great,” she says. She explains that she has decided to try Adderall. She popped one pill at 9am. At 9:30 she felt a tightening in her stomach and a rush in the front of her head. At 9:50 she called me. I am upset that she discovers all the good things before I do. When I was 27, why was I not finding fun pharmaceuticals to improve my wellbeing? 1. Judge your pharmaceutical choices by deciding if you attract good people when you are on the medication. The update from Melissa besides that she is finding the perfect drug regimen for herself is that she has a boyfriend. Actually she moved in with him. Here she is painting his bedroom. But I don’t want you to think I’ve been holding out on reporting this. I wrote the Melissa-has-a-boyfriend post but by the time I was ready to finish it, they were practically married and the post seemed outdated. Not that I actually wrote that post. But I thought about it. I thought about it every time some guy would send me an email asking if Melissa is single. I should turn my blog into a dating site because Melissa has had a lot of offers. And I keep thinking I need to write a post about how she has a boyfriend, but then I think, what if the boyfriend doesn’t work out? I don’t want to kill her chances for finding someone through my blog. She’s 27, and every time she’s at my house and I’m coaching someone on the phone about figuring out how to get married and have kids when they are already 33, Melissa gets panicky and thinks she has to find a husband. And of course I am no help, because I’m a big believer in having all your kids before you’re 35. So the guy’s name is Steven. And let me just say that among the guys I’ve hated who Melissa has dated, Steven is a diamond. Just a really great guy. And this is saying a lot because when Melissa doesn’t have a boyfriend, I get all her attention, which is really nice. I have the most to lose when Melissa has a good guy in her life. But really, Steven is good. Here’s why: First,  it was actually an uphill battle for Melissa to be attracted to a guy who is not fucked up. Steven had to push really hard for second and third dates. At one point, Melissa told me that she thinks she likes his dog, Hannah, better than him. He has trained Hannah in that perfect, this-dog-does-anything way. And, on top of that, she cuddles, which was great for Melissa, before she found Adderall. The great thing about Steven is that it turns out that he knew this about Melissa, and he kept it to himself as he won her over. Also, Steven has a really cool job. He programs video games. This means that my kids love him. They want to record themselves playing Mario on the Wii  and put it online. Steven watches this type of  video on YouTube all the time, and he has great knowledge about how to set up the recording, so he is a hero to my sons. This is important, because I think my sons might have thought that they were going to marry Melissa. Another thing I like about Steven is he said he did not want to be on the blog. This is a sign of a sane person. I can go through the list of men who I dated while I had my blog, and there is a direct correlation between how much they loved being on my blog and how much they loved being crazy. This is also a problem, though. Melissa says, “Steven is going to last. So you can’t do anything bad to him on the blog.” This, of course, is a veiled reference to Cullen. Who Melissa is not allowed to mention because Steven is sick of hearing about her ex boyfriends, but it’s my blog, so I can mention them. This is a problem I’m familiar with. The Farmer hates being on my blog. And somehow we navigate through that. 2. If you medicate to stop behaviors and feelings that undermine you, then you’ll find a new ability to make changes throughout all aspects of your life. So Melissa is here, on the farm, on Adderall and I have to say, I’m impressed with it. (Though Ive been enthralled with the possibilities of Addrall  for a while.) Melissa has been on anxiety medicine for a few years. When I first met her, she was on nothing. And she was nuts. She was sort of earning a lot of money but completely unattached to the world, sort of floating through jobs, collecting huge paychecks for her eidetic memory which is generally useless but still always intoxicating to potential employers. She was a ball of anxiety.   I met her when she was asking me for career advice and I told her to take a long vacation. Like a year. That was my advice. So you have watched her scale back her lifethat’s the story of Melissa on this blog. But as she scaled back her life and medicated herself for anxiety, she ended up spending a lot of time in bed. Asleep. Not that this didn’t stop me from doing what she did. When my therapist told me that my anxiety was getting in the way of me ever being close to someone, he pointed to the diagnosis of borderline personality disorder. He said it carefully. Probably because it might be the most socially unacceptable diagnosis you can have. But he is not the only person to have suggested it. There is almost always a childhood trauma that causes this mental disorder. And in my case, that is surely the case. So it is not like there’s anything I can do now, except make myself better. So I looked at how much less anxiety Melissa had after the medication, and I got myself some. Let me just say that after having a diagnosis of Aspergers and a diagnosis of borderline personality disorder, it’s pretty easy to get any medication I want. So I have been on Zoloft, for anxiety, and it’s been putting me to sleep. And I feel like Melissa. Except that I am not childless, living with a game programmer who adores me no matter what I’m doing. I’m living with two kids and a husband who need me to wake up every day and make the day happen. So for my family, it’s better for me to be constantly sleepy, but even-keeled and reasonable than to be anxious and insecure and screaming. Which, frankly, is me when I am not on anxiety medicine. So when Melissa showed up with the Adderall, first I told her she is too bouncy for me. She said, “No I’m not. I’m my regular self. But without the anxiety.” 3. Don’t be scared of side effects; often they’re a really nice surprise. She asked me to make her chocolate chip cookie dough. That’s what she eats when she’s here.   Out of the bowl. I make her eat it in the kitchen so the kids don’t see. While I am mixing butter and eggs, she says, “I think I should be an editor. Can you help me get an editor job?” And she said, “I think I know how to get a company funded.” I said, “Do you have an idea?” She said, “No. But you always have ideas. And I know this guy who really likes me and he wants to fund something I’m doing and he likes Lego so much and you are going to the Lego buildoff with your kids and we should get him tickets, too.” I said, “I am trying the Adderall tomorrow.   I’m sick of sleeping.” And here we are. Both on Adderall. It’s so great. And it suppresses appetite. Neither of us could believe more people don’t use Adderall to get thin. And then Melissa googled and found that it is prescribed for obesity. Melissa says I should not tell you how great Adderall is because there’s a shortage. Theres a great article in New York magazine about how Adderall is going for $11 a pill. I tell Melissa there is not a shortage in Darlington, WI. We can get ten bottles here. Wait, maybe this will be our new business.

Today, Save 25% With My 4th of July Sale!

Today, Save 25% With My 4th of July Sale! We’re in the heat of summer! And to celebrate, I’m hosting a 4th of July  SALEâ€"and it starts TODAY. For 5 days only, you can  SAVE 25% on ANY of my signature products and services for career success. If you haven’t shopped my  Classy Career Girl Store before, it’s chock-full of helpful resources to help you get your career unstuck and transform your life. Here’s a sampling: “90 Day Summer Get Unstuck Individual Coaching Program“  â€"Transition out of the job you hate and into your dream job THIS SUMMER! I will teach you my 7-Step Get Unstuck System personally this summer with weekly individual coaching calls, a personality assessment and access to my previously sold out Get Unstuck Bootcamp. (TAKE 25% off!) “Self-Study Get Your Career Unstuck Virtual Bootcamp” â€"If you are ready to get out of a job you hate and into a job you love, this online course will walk you through every step of the way so you can find a career that you love to go to everyday and clear direction for your professional future. (TAKE 25% off!) “Makeover Your Resume Cover Letter in 10 Days Video Course” â€" This is a brand new course that I am actually launching next week but I wanted you to have first dibs on the bonuses and the discount before I officially launch it. So get in and shhhh!!  Its time to spice up your resume and cover letter so that you can find work you love.FAST!  I want to teach you my PROVEN, Resume Makeover 10-Step System so you can learn EXACTLY how to create a resume and cover letter that gets you an interview for your dream job. (TAKE 25% off!) “The Classy Career Girl Get Ahead Club” Join over 30 women in the Get Ahead Club who want to be inspired, motivated and encouraged to take their carers into their own hands and GET AHEAD! Includes access to monthly interviews with Anna Runyan and other career experts and authors! (TAKE 25% off!) Take a peek at ALL my products in my Classy Career Girl Store, and start making amazing things happen in your career now.  Now is your time!! This is your sign it is time to get unstuck and finally have clear direction for your future career success! Get Ahead Club members get an additional 15% offâ€"that means all my Get Ahead Club members SAVE 40% on all products! If you’re a member, watch the membership site and private facebook group for details on how you can redeem your exclusive member savings. Enjoy and Happy 4th of July!! P.S. Feel free to share this limited time offer with your friends, family, and co-workersâ€"just  remember this offer is ONLY good  through  Sunday, July 7th.

Which Legal Niche Offers The Best Earning PotentialÂ

Which Legal Niche Offers The Best Earning Potential   Training to become a legal expert can take a long time. So, it makes sense to ensure you’ve chosen the right niche from day one. We’re going to offer some information today that should help you to make that decision. At the end of the day, we all want to earn the highest income possible. That is why it makes sense for you to select a profitable niche where there’s always lots of work. You don’t have to take our advice, but we guarantee it will assist you in creating a better life for your family. In truth, all lawyers earn a good wage. It’s just that some achieve better pay than others. Corporate law Specialists in corporate law can expect to see high earnings as they progress through their career. That is because large international companies are in court most of the time. There is always some issue another party wants to raise. With that in mind, focusing your efforts on that niche is a sensible move. You might have to deal with more paperwork that other attorneys, but your bank manager will have a massive smile on his face. You can either start a new company or work directly for the corporations. The decision is down to you. Investment law Expert securities lawyer Martin Chitwood knows how easy it can be for investors to get a bad deal. However, it becomes a legal matter when the company you’re associated with commits fraud. You might think that doesn’t happen very often in the modern market, but that’s not true. Investment lawyers work to ensure everyone gets a fair deal and contracts are fulfilled. Getting involved with that area of law could mean you contract to some of the richest investors in the world. As you can probably imagine, they’re willing to pay a hefty fee for the right expertise. Human rights law You would be forgiven for thinking human rights lawyers earn low wages. That perception originates from the fact that most clients won’t have much funding. However, it’s aid agencies and charities that pay for legal representation in most instances. Indeed, they often spend a fortune to ensure the best human rights specialists are working on their cases. Starting a career in that field could mean you get to travel all over the world for work purposes. Just bear in mind that lives are at stake, and so you need to apply every inch of your knowledge. Failure to present the right facts to the courts could mean the difference between life and death for your clients. Those legal niches are guaranteed to fill your bank accounts with more cash than you can spend. Now you just need to decide if making a difference in the world is more important. Those who just want to get rich should consider a life in corporate law. Those with a conscience should think about human rights. When all’s said and done, only you can make the choice. Research any ideas thoroughly before making your commitment. You could even speak to seasoned experts to learn more about the day to day realities. Image Source; Image Source

Additional Skills For Resume - Make Sure You Have These on Hand

Additional Skills For Resume - Make Sure You Have These on HandIf you're looking for additional skills for resume that will be looked at as you fill out your resume, your best bet is to make sure you have all of them on hand. I'm going to go over some of the more valuable skills and how you can use them to your advantage.Knowledge - There are many people out there who are completely unprepared for the additional skills for resume that they're going to need to display in their resume. Many of these people have never even heard of a spreadsheet before, much less some of the newer programs that are designed to help them with this task. This means that they don't have the necessary knowledge to properly format their resume and have an easy time getting it turned into the form needed by employers to read.And so it is important to make sure that you have a complete knowledge of some of the newer programs that are designed to help you with this extra set of skills for resume. You should at least know enough about these to have it organized on your computer. If you don't, you could end up not having it at all or it could get lost somewhere along the way.Basic Computer Skills - It's not hard to learn how to use a computer if you really put the time into it. In fact, it's probably the easiest skill to learn if you're used to it already. All you need to know to be successful with a resume is basic computer skills such as entering data and text into the appropriate fields, formatting the resume properly.And the best thing is that if you have those things down pat, you'll be able to apply these things when you apply for the job in the first place. The reason that most people have trouble applying these skills for resume is because they don't know where to start. They think that they can just type in the information and then hit submit on their application.Don't make yourself look like a fool just to get the job! Start your application off right by learning some of the tips and tricks of the trade to help you get the job.Before applying for the job, make sure that you know what you're applying for. Learn the ins and outs of the company that you're applying for, the kind of work that they do, the culture of the company, and the reputation of the company. If you can learn all of these before applying, it will make your resume stand out as a unique applicant.And then, once you've applied, make sure that you're very clear on how you feel about what you were hired for. This will help you make sure that you're doing the job that you were hired for and ensure that you're satisfied with the work that you did.

How to Get Noticed at Work for the Right Reasons

How to Get Noticed at Work for the Right Reasons Would you like to get noticed by senior management? In a good way, of course. The kind of “getting noticed” that leads to being considered for exciting projects, gaining greater respect from your colleagues, and having opportunities to move up to the next level at work. These days, you have to go beyond the obvious to get noticed. It no longer works to rely on the quality of your work, your dedication or even being a “good citizen”. Frankly, all of that is expected. The question is, what does it take to get noticed by senior management? What It Takes to Get Noticed The good news is you don’t have to jump up and down or be loud and flamboyant if that’s out of character. Instead, it’s about doubling down on what’s in your character. Tapping into the true you, including the parts you keep hidden because you’re afraid what others might think. (Spoiler alert: these aspects that don’t conform to the norm may be exactly what gets you noticed…in the right way!) Tap into the true you, including the parts you keep hidden because you’re afraid what others might think. 3 Simple Ways to Show Who You Really Are The even better news is there are some simple things you can do every day or every week to show who you really are. What I like about these is they don’t take much effort. In fact, they’ll probably save you effort because you won’t need to “hide” or “shave off” parts of yourself, both of which take up energy. 1. What You Wear Your clothing, hair, makeup and accessories are some of the easiest ways to show others who you really are. And yet, most of us dress in a way that conforms to the dress code of the office. As they say, you have to look the part. The interesting thing is that beyond the formal dress code (as in “no T-shirts, tank tops, shorts, etc.”), there’s the even more powerful informal dress code. For example, in investment banks, no one wears brown. It’s not written down anywhere, but it’s no brown shoes, no brown suits, no brown belts. I have no idea why that’s the case, but if you wear brown, it just shouts out, “you’re not one of us”. One of my coaching clients discovered this only after buying a pair of handmade Italian shoes â€" you guessed it, they were brown â€" and getting grief from several colleagues the first day he wore them. He decided to stop wearing the brown shoes (it was too big a “taboo” that distracted senior people from seeing his capabilities) and chose other ways to express his personality through his choice of yellow eyeglass frames and unconventional ties. He has since become one of the most highly regarded directors at the firm and known for the creative angle he brings to solving even the most complex problems. What you wear gives out messages about who you are and what you bring. So know where to show your personality in your clothing and accessory choices and know what’s going “too far” for others to be comfortable. I find the comfort zone for most organizations is to dress 10-20% different from others. What does your choice of clothing say about you? And if you’re 100% conforming to the norm and not happy with it, what’s the 10-20% shift you could make to express yourself and help people notice you for who you really are? 2. What You Say Another way to show your true self is in what you say and how you say it. When you speak, you’re expressing your thoughts, intentions, assumptions and beliefs. The key is being aware of what you say and how you’re coming across. Then you can determine whether that’s an accurate representation of who you are and what you want to be noticed for. Be aware of what you say and how you’re coming across. Then determine whether that’s an accurate representation of who you are and what you want to be noticed for. One of my colleagues was a constant complainer. If it wasn’t about the company policies, it was about our boss or other colleagues, and the weather took its share of criticism as well. It turned out she was completely unaware of how she was coming across. Once someone pointed out her complaining tendency, she told us what a tough time she was going through personally, caring for a family member who was ill and being the primary breadwinner for the family now that her husband had lost his job. Once she was aware, she was able to change how she was speaking and that helped her get noticed in a much better way. In your case, perhaps it’s speaking in a way that’s uplifting and positive. Or inspiring people around you to be their best. Or maybe you’re the person people come to for your calm, measured advice. Or perhaps you’re in your element when you help people brainstorm a new idea. Get in touch with the words, phrases and tone of voice you tend to use, and what you say when you’re at your best. Then make conscious choices about how you can harness what comes naturally to you. What do you tend to say and how do you say it? To what extent is your talk representing the most awesome aspects of you? 3. What You (Consistently) Do Actions speak louder than words, so it’s only fitting that one of the ways to get the right people to notice you is through your actions. Most of us are basically good people who mean well. But it’s easy to get caught up in our own lives and forget to think about others. That’s why the key to nailing “what you do” is being aware of opportunities where you can lend a hand or step in to help someone else. It can be small things, like giving a quiet colleague a chance to speak up at a meeting by asking their opinion, and then supporting them by building on their point. Or publicly thanking your support team for their contributions to the event you’ve just hosted. What you do is especially important in situations where it takes courage to step up and take action. For example, the moment when basketball coach Maurice Cheeks came to the rescue of 13-year old Natalie Gilbert. Natalie forgot the words to the National Anthem she was performing in front of 20,000 fans at the start of one of the most important games of Cheeks’ career. Cheeks was not a good singer, but he recognized a young girl being humiliated on stage and went to help. He walked up to her, gave her the next line, started singing along with her and inspired the entire stadium to sing together. He was the only one out of 20,000 people who took action and you can be sure his management (and fans) noticed. As his boss said, “(T)hat’s who he is. He’s a guy that has high character. I’m lucky that I have him.”   Just remember that when you take action and put your true self out there, it only works if you do it without expecting something in return. You don’t want to make it transactional because people see right through that. These kinds of “leadership moments” are what show your true character. And that’s worth noticing. What can you do to be aware of opportunities to lend a hand and have the presence of mind to step up and act? Get Noticed for the Real You In a world where there’s not enough time to do everything we want to do, it’s helpful to focus on and leverage who you really are and what comes naturally to you. To get noticed by senior management, the surest strategy is to double down on being yourself â€" your whole self, which is also your best self. To get noticed by senior management, the surest strategy is to double down on being yourself â€" your whole self, which is also your best self. The beauty is it takes less effort and makes a bigger impact when you bring the real you to work. So let the true you show up in what you wear, what you say and what you do. That’s what gets you noticed for the right reasons. What one simple thing can you do this week to show your true self? Leave me a comment and let me know.

Great Gift Ideas for Colleagues and Officemates - CareerAlley

Great Gift Ideas for Colleagues and Officemates - CareerAlley We may receive compensation when you click on links to products from our partners. When special occasions arise in the office, giving gifts can be a source of stress. Questions of whats appropriate to spend and give to certain members of your work team can be tough to answer, but it neednt be stressful. Use these awesome, office-approved gift ideas to make sure any professional celebration is given the fanfare its due, whether its a bosss retirement, Secret Santa shindig, or revenue milestone. For the Golfer At some point in your life, you will encounter a boss or supervisor who loves to golfit seems to be a strange rite of passage in the professional world. If this is true of your boss, or of a fellow colleague, some golf-related presents are sure to fit the bill. You could buy a gift certificate for a turn on the swanky golf course in town so they can go and hit some balls down the fairway, serving as the perfect way to help them rid of the stress of the work week. If youre looking for an inexpensive present, consider some hilarious golf socks that theyll definitely get a kick out of. Any golf lover will appreciate your golf-themed gift, and you can find a range of items in this arena that wont break the bank. Group Presents If youre looking for gifts for a large portion of the office, a group present is the best option. This might mean catering a gourmet meal at the office, or taking everyone out to eat. If youre looking for something a bit more unique, consider buying movie tickets in bulk, then putting together a movie night basket for each employee and their significant other/family. Still unsure? Think outside the box and sign up the office for a fun camaraderie-boosting day of exciting fun! Websites like FunSherpa.com curate a collection of local adventures, including hot air balloon rides, white water rafting trips, and more. If youve got an employee roster filled with daredevils, this is sure to be a big hit when revealed. Office Dcor We spend the majority of our weeks in our offices, so office dcor is never a bad present idea when it comes to colleagues, superiors, or employees. Office dcor also serves a practical purpose; first impressions are everything in business, and if you often field clients in-house, its important to pay attention to office aesthetics. If youre looking for art to liven up a colleagues bland wall, consider purchasing an inexpensive print from Society6. There are styles of all types, and if youre unsure if theyre into abstract art or tend to lean towards the impressionistic, the site also offers gift cards that you can quickly download and hand overperfect for any last-minute gift needs. Combating Office Back If you havent heard, our office jobs may be actually leading us to an early death. Scary, I know, but whats to be expected when we spend more than 40 hours a week hunched over at our desks? Its easy to forget about maintaining proper posture when weve got a deadline to hit, and the ache in your back at the end of a long work week is definitely cause for concern. The best way to combat the negative effects of sitting all day? Making it possible to stand and work at the same time. There are numerous companies that offer a variety of movable desks that will take employees from sitting to standing in a matter of seconds. One company called VariDesk offers desk conversion units that can be used on top of an existing desk. This is a gift that can actually grant your employee or colleague better health, which is something we all deserve. Dont have the money to shell out for an entirely new desk? Consider purchasing your employee an ergonomic desk chair to help perfect posture during the day and make sure they have the lumbar support needed for optimal comfort during long hours at the office. Finding appropriate office gifts has never been easier. No matter your budget, this list is sure to help you find something perfect for your boss, favorite colleague, or stellar employee. We are always eager to hear from our readers. Please feel free to contact us if you have any questions or suggestions regarding CareerAlley content. Good luck in your search,Joey Google+