10 Ways To Be Sensationally Successful At Your New Job

You just got a shiny new job, at a great company. Congrats! Your first day at a new job can either be the first day of the rest of your life… or the first of a series of endless “Groundhog Day” experiences, where every day feels the same and your new job quickly seems just like the old job.
To make sure that doesn't happen, here are ten things to do differently and help you stand-out:


1. Behave as if you’re still being interviewed.
Once you’re hired it’s natural to feel a sense of accomplishment. It’s easy to assume you belong.
After all, they hired you, right? You’re awesome! And the company is brilliant for having recognized your awesomeness. High five!

Not so fast. Sure, you got hired, and in fact you may be awesome, but you haven’t actually done anything for your new company yet. All you've really shown is that you can get the great new gig.
Now you need to prove you deserve it.

Think of your first thirty to ninety days as an extended interview. Show up every day thinking you need to prove you deserved to be hired. You'll work harder, work smarter, won’t take anything for granted… and in short order you will prove you belong.

2. See your manager as a person you help, not a person who tells you what to do.
Yes, in theory, your manager gets to tell you what to do. In practice, that's probably not why she hired you.

Here’s a better approach: Your manager has things she needs to get done. See your job as helping her get those things done. The more you help her achieve her goals and targets the more highly you will be valued.

Plus you’ll find it’s a lot easier to work hard when you feel you’re helping someone instead of obeying them. And you’ll enjoy your work more too – it’s a lot more fun and an infinitely more rewarding to help than to comply.

3. Build relationships based on performance, not conversation.
Great companies with great cultures welcome new employees to the fold. Other employees go out of their way to meet and get to know you.

That’s awesome, but work still involves work, not just conversation. Be nice, be friendly, be yourself – but always remember that the best working relationships are based on respect and trust, and respect and trust are based on actions and performance, not just on words.

Prove yourself. Pitch in. Help out. Follow through. Meet every commitment. Earn the respect and trust of others and you will build truly great professional relationships.

And you’ll build some great friendships, too.

4. Go the extra mile early – and often.
Early on you probably don’t have all the skills you need. You probably don’t have all the experience.

You probably don’t have all the contacts and connections.

But you can have the willingness to work extremely hard.

Work hard and everyone around you will forgive a certain lack of skill and experience. They’ll know you’re trying – and sometimes, at least for a while, that’s all that matters.

5. Spot the high performers and mimic them.
Every organization is different, which means the key attributes of top performers in those organizations are different, too.

Maybe the top performers work more – or different – hours. Maybe relationship building is more important than transactional selling. Maybe flexibility is more important than methodology.
Pick out the top performers and study them. Figure out what makes them tick. How they approach problems. How they make decisions. There’s no need to reinvent the high performance wheel; save that for when you are a top performer and want to go an even higher level.

6. Think three moves ahead.
Great chess players think many moves ahead. The current move builds a base for future moves.
You can do the same at work. Think about where a task might lead you. Think about how you can leverage your current responsibilities. Think about what skills you can learn, visibility you can gain, connections you can build… every task, every project, and every job can lead to a number of great possibilities.

Think of your current duties as one piece in a puzzle, a puzzle that you get to put together and ultimately build.

7. Find a way to stand out.
We have remarkable employees at HubSpot. We feel they have a super-power that makes them stand out in some way. Maybe they’re remarkably smart, or remarkably creative, or remarkably resourceful, or remarkably successful... each of our employees stands out in some special and unique way.

Work hard to be known for something specific. Be known for responding more quickly or following up first or always offering to help before you’re asked. Be the leader known for turning around struggling employees or creating the biggest pool of promotable talent or building bridges between different departments.

Pick a worthwhile mission – one that truly benefits the company and other employees – and work to excel at that mission. Then you’ll stand out in the best possible way.

8. Create your own project.
Succeeding and even excelling at the projects you’re assigned is expected. Excelling at a project you create yourself is exceptional.

The key is to take personal risk with a new project (while making sure the company and your colleagues shoulder most of the risk).

For example, we had a member of our sales team believe passionately in building a partner channel. It wasn't an area that anyone on the exec team was particularly excited about. But, he did it anyway. He did it on his own time, working late, trying different things… and ultimately figured it out. He is now running one of the fastest growing and productive teams in the company. He has also helped create the model for how experiments are run and managed at HubSpot.

I know what you’re thinking: “Wait. He did it on his own time?” Yes, he did. He decided to prove himself. If he had failed, there was little cost to the company so really there was nothing to lose.
But for him – and the company – there was a lot to possibly be gained.

You don’t have to wait to be asked. You don’t have to wait to be assigned. Pick a side project where, if you fail, there’s no harm and no foul, and take your shot. You never know how it will turn out… and what it will do for your career.

9. Find people to help.
You’re new. People are supposed to help you, right?

Right. And wrong.

You can start helping people now. If you see someone struggling and you don’t know what to do, say, “I’m new so you may have to tell me what to do… but I would love to help you.” If you’re in a meeting and someone else was assigned a seemingly overwhelming project, stop by later and ask if you can help. Even if you’re not taken up on it, the offer will likely be appreciated.

Or volunteer to help in an area you’d like to know more about. Work in sales? You could volunteer to help your marketing team create a new piece of content. Work in marketing? You could help your engineering team do some user testing on a new product.

Just make sure you don’t become the guy who helps others but doesn't get his own stuff done.
No one likes that guy.

10. Never forget why you were hired.
Yes, you want to learn and grow. Yes, you want to build a career. Yes, you want to feel happy and fulfilled.

And yes, you were hired to help advance the goals and mission of the company.
It’s possible to fulfill your goals and the company’s goals. Make sure you do. That way you and the company win – and isn't that what the employer/employee relationship should be all about?

Posted on Linked In by: Dharmesh Shah

8 Ways to Work Sucessfully with Recruiters

Although you will have been contacted by recruiters from time to time, you may or may not have been interested in what they had on offer. Most people should have realized by now that recruiters are not only useful when you are changing jobs but also when you are perfectly happy within your position.

Over time, your relationships with good recruiters will prove mutually beneficial as long as you nurture them. Keep track of the good recruiters out there, just like they keep track of you on their CRM system. And although you may be very safe in your job today, all it takes is new management or an outsourcing deal and you will need that recruiter as soon as possible.

First off, you need to understand how recruiters operate and what their agendas are. Just like they like to provide value when calling you, from your side you can think of what will be of value to them apart from the obvious value of you being interested in one of their positions.

Contingency vs. retained recruiters

There are two types of recruiters out there; contingency and retained. They are both keen on placing you into a position but the way they are remunerated are different. The contingency recruiter works on a fee for success only, so their job is to find brilliant candidates that their clients will hopefully be interested in. The retained recruiter has been formally instructed by the client to fill a particular role and they take a fee to start their assignment as well as a fee on completion.

How does this matter to you? Well, the retained recruiters tend to have the better jobs and obviously work closer with the clients. The contingency recruiters tend to work with a plethora of clients and are typically more pro-active. So if you think that you will move at some point in the foreseeable future, stay in touch with contingency recruiters. If you are very happy with your position and would only move for the dream job, chances are the retained recruiters will be handling the vacancy. In any event, the fees are charged to the client and you will never have to fork anything out, apart from your time.

1. Stay in touch

You will want to stay in touch with recruiters that are local or have a local client base, if possible you should even meet them to further cement your relationship. Please be aware that if you are not going to be interested in any positions, communicate this clearly so that you don’t get the recruiter’s hopes up too much.

2. Same field, same geography

You also want to make sure the recruiters you stay in touch with are specialized on your sector/industry and cover the same area that you are interested in. There is little sense in having regular contact with generalist recruiters as they won’t be able to fill you in on industry gossip and they are not likely to have the relevant opportunities for you.

3. Give and get the inside news

Exchange information with recruiters. A decent recruiter will tell you what they have on at the moment and will expect you to tell them what is happening at your company/department/team. Remember that some of the recruiters you deal with will have a direct access to very senior people in your field. You would be surprised how liberal with information senior hiring managers can be, only because they are speaking with a recruiter and not a peer. This means you can access top level industry gossip very conveniently.

4. Giving referrals

Whether or not to give out referrals of colleagues and people you know in other companies is up to you. All I can say is that it is very much appreciated by the recruiter and they will return the favor when the time comes. Make sure to agree that this give and take of information stays strictly confidential.

5. Knowing what you want

Be clear about what you want and what you don’t want. It is a source of frustration for recruiters when candidates aren’t sure what direction they want to take their career. When you are clear, the recruiter will respect this and will only ever bring up jobs that fit the bill; thus saving you both time. Furthermore, operate on a ‘no surprises’ policy, meaning if something (a promotion, another job) comes up please make the recruiter aware of this early on. Again, your honesty will be appreciated.

6. Your salary

Be open and honest about your current package, as recruiters can sniff out a liar a mile away. By being open, the recruiter can actually tell you if you are being fairly remunerated or not. This is basically a free salary benchmarking straight from the expert.

7. Common courtesy

Always be courteous and return calls from the recruiter. Although the call back rate for voicemails can be low, most people will drop an email or text saying when they are available to speak again.

8. The tables might turn

Last but not least, you might find yourself in a hiring position one day and this is when your recruitment contacts can be very handy. Your contacts will be more than happy to work with you as a client and as you have been in regular contact over time, your new business relationship will hit the ground running.

Article posted on Linked In  

The 4 Moments of Truth in the Hiring Process—and how to Handle Them

The commercial world has long been aware of the idea of a “moment of truth” in the sales process. In a white paper by Mckinsey consulting, called the ‘The Moment of Truth’ in customer service, they describe it as the crucial moments during business customer interactions where the “long term relationship between a business and its customers can change significantly for better or worse.” Therefore, during these crucial moments the customers impression of the business can improve or deteriorate dramatically.

This “moment of truth” is a concept that can be broadly applied to many industries and processes. In particular, I think it can be applied to the hiring process to help employers optimize their candidate attraction process.

For example, as the employer, you’re selling your employer brand and experience (the product or service) to the candidate (the customer) during the hiring process. And some recent research from CareerBuilder leads me to suggest that there are four key moments of truth in the hiring process where the candidate perception of your business can change dramatically for the better or the worse. And in order to maximize your company’s appeal to candidates, you must be aware of these “moments of truth” in the hiring process and respond appropriately to ensure that a positive impression is created.

Below, I have identified what I see as the four moments of truth in the job hunt—based on the CareerBuilder research—and I have suggested some appropriate responses to ensure you handle the moments of truth in the most effective way, which will optimize your level of appeal to candidates.

1. First Glance at the job description—the most attention grabbing content in a job description—which would spark the candidate’s initial interest—was perception of the company and industry, interesting work and growth opportunities.
2. Negotiating the application process—while the content of an ad was crucial to forming the candidate’s first impression, the top three reasons for candidates not applying to a job was that: a link was not working, computer/Internet problems and a lengthy application process.
3. Acknowledgment/rejection letter. The Career Builder Applicant experience study found that 44 percent of candidates who did not hear back from an employer, when they applied for a job, would have a worse opinion of that employer. Also, 78 percent of them said that they would tell others about their bad experience with the employer.
4. First human contact—the study also found that a bad first impression could cause job seekers to eliminate the employer from their considerations altogether. They found that 21 percent felt that the employer was not enthusiastic about their own company, 17 percent did not believe the recruiter was knowledgeable and 15 percent did not think the recruiter was professional.

With this knowledge of the four key moments of truth in the hiring process, employers should take steps to ensure that they manage them effectively to ensure that each encounter positively enhances their brands. Such steps include an effective, end-to-end and timely candidate communication process so applicants are not left in the dark at any point.
Also, fully train and brief your recruiters to ensure that they are both knowledgeable and positive about the business in all candidate interactions – and ensure you choose external recruiters who reflect your employer brand.

Don’t forget to look at your application process. Test out your own application process or compare it to your competitors’. Is it slow and cumbersome? Would it put you off applying? If so, maybe you need to modify it so it is a more efficient job application process.

And, finally, consider first contact with the job seeker, which is the job description. Make sure that this includes all the most attention grabbing content, written in a highly promotional and candidate-optimized way. At the very least this should contain engaging descriptions of company culture, the team and the job as well a demonstration of the company’s commitment to career development.

Posted on Linked In by: Kazim Ladimeji 

5 Hiring Mistakes That Can Crush Your Company's Culture

Posted on Linked In by: Dharmesh Shah

Remember your first loan? You were excited and apprehensive: Excited because now you had the cash to invest, apprehensive because you had just taken on a debt you would have to repay.

But that was okay, because you were confident you could create more value than the interest you would pay. Even though you eventually have to pay off a financial debt, gaining access to the right resources now often marks the difference between success and failure.

That’s true for financial debt – but it’s never true for culture debt.

Culture debt happens when a business takes a shortcut and hires an employee with, say, the “right” the skills or experience… but who doesn't fit the culture. Just one bad hire can create a wave of negativity that washes over every other employee – and as a result, your entire business.
Unfortunately the interest on culture debt is extremely high: In some cases you will never pay off the debt you incur, even when a culture misfit is let go or leaves.
Here are five all-too-common ways you can create a culture debt that can keep your from building from succeeding

1. You see the ivy and miss the poison
The skilled developer who writes great code… but who also resists taking any direction and refuses to help others… won't instantly turn over a new interpersonal leaf just because you hire him.
The skilled salesperson who in the short-term always seems to outperform her peers… but who also maneuvers and manipulates and builds kerosene-soaked bridges just waiting to go up in flames… won’t turn into a relationship building, long-term focused ambassador for your company just because you hire her.

The interview process is a little like a honeymoon. You see the best the candidate has to offer. If a prospective employee doesn't look like a great fit for your culture before he is hired, he definitely won’t be after he’s hired.
Never risk making a deal with the culture-fit devil. The soul of your company is at stake.

2. You discard the attitude and play the skill card
Skills and experience are worthless when not put to use. Knowledge is useless when not shared with others.

The smaller your business the more likely you are to be an expert in your field, so transferring those skills to new employees is relatively easy. But you can't train enthusiasm, a solid work ethic, and great interpersonal skills – and those traits can matter a lot more than any skills a candidate brings.
According to this study only 11% of the new hires that failed in the first 18 months failed due to deficiencies in technical skills. The majority failed due to lack of motivation, an unwillingness to be coached, or problems with temperament and emotional intelligence.

Think of it this way: The candidate who lacks certain hard skills might be a cause for concern, but the candidate who lacks the beliefs and values you need is a giant culture debt red flag.

3. You try to sell a used car
It’s tempting to over-sell a candidate on your company, especially when you desperately need to fill an open position and you've been recruiting for seemingly forever.
Don’t. Great candidates come prepared. They've done their homework. They already know whether your company is a good fit for them.

Describe the position, describe your company, answer every question, be candid and forthright, let your natural enthusiasm show through… and let the candidate make an informed decision. But, don’t oversell.

The right candidates recognize the right opportunities – and the right cultural fit.

4. You mistake the rumblings for hunger
Nothing beats a formal, thorough, comprehensive hiring process… except, sometimes, a dose of intuition and gut feel.

At my company HubSpot (grew from 0-500 employees in 6 years) there are five key attributes we value:

· Humble. They’re modest despite being awesome. They’re self-aware and respectful.

· Effective. They get (stuff) done. They measurably move the needle and immeasurably add value.

· Adaptable. They’re constantly changing, life-long learners.

· Remarkable. They have a super-power that makes them stand out: Remarkably smart, remarkably creative, remarkably resourceful…

· Transparent. They’re open and honest with others – and with themselves.
In short, we look for people with H-E-A-R-T, because they help us create a company we love. So we always weigh our impressions against more qualitative considerations. You should too. Think of it this way: The more experience you have – the more lumps you’ve taken and hard knocks you’ve received and mistakes you’ve made – the more “educated” your “gut.” While you should never go on intuition alone, if you have a funny feeling about a candidate… see that as a sign you need to look more closely.

And look more closely.

For a detailed insider’s peek into how we think about culture at HubSpot, check out our Culture Code slides)

Bottom line: Define the intangibles you want in your employees and never compromise by hiring a candidate who lacks those qualities.

5. You decide to double down
There are two basic kinds of risk you can take on a potential employee.
First the worthwhile risks: Taking a shot on a candidate you feel has more potential than her previous employer let her show; taking a shot on a candidate who is missing a few skills but has attitude in abundance; taking a chance on a candidate you feel certain brings the enthusiasm, drive, and spirit your team desperately needs. Those are good chances to take.

Now the foolish risks: Taking a shot on a candidate with a history of performance issues that you hope will somehow develop a strong work ethic; taking a chance on the candidate who left his last two jobs because "my bosses were jerks;" taking a shot on the candidate who has no experience yet only wants to talk about how quickly and often she will be promoted.

Why do you rationalize taking foolish risks? You're desperate. Or you're lazy. Or you have "other issues to focus on." Or you figure your culture is strong enough to withstand the impact of one ill-fitting employee.

Don't take foolish risks. They almost always turn out badly. Occasionally take potentially worthwhile risks, because they can turn out to be your most inspired hires and, eventually, your best employees.
And never, ever take a chance that creates high-interest culture debt.

The cost to your organization is just too high. And, life is short.

50 Education Technology Tools You Can Start Using Today

 Added to Linked I by: Jeff Dun

Finding the best education technology tools is a time-consuming task. It may even be viewed as a chore (for some). Typically, one tracks down a handful of useful apps or web tools and puts them through their paces at home. Then you probably don’t use any of them because each tool took far too long to understand, use, become accustomed to, and actually implement in a classroom.
That’s why I was so excited to find this Symbaloo created by user lcobbs detailing 50 great classroom tools that are all easy to implement into just about any classroom. From Animoto to Prezi to Dropbox to Stixy (wait what?), there’s a lot to check out. Don’t know all 50 tools? I didn’t! Click on each icon to get an idea about each tool and learn more.
The mix is embedded below and requires a bit of side-scrolling to view them all. It’s worth it though! Want to view it in a separate tab? Click here for that. Want to explore one of the tools a bit more? Just click the icon of your chosen tool. Simple as that!

Why Positivity is So Essential in the Workplace

Posted on Linked In by: Dr. Marla Gottschalk


Most of us are familiar with the terms "economic capital" or "human capital", but have you considered the notion of "psychological capital' and how it relates to your work life? Researchers studying the application of Positive Psychology to the workplace have carefully considered this idea - as a growing body of evidence demonstrates that a positive mindset can not only affect our attitudes toward work, but the outcomes which follow. Indeed, the "psychological capital" that we bring to the table, can have a significant impact upon work and career.

Recently we discussed, how the tenets of positive psychology might provide a guide to help us achieve greater levels of workplace happiness. Overall, the movement stresses the identification of what is "right" with our work lives - building on positive contributors (emphasizing our strengths, celebrating smaller successes, gratitude). Central to this theory is the mechanism by which we build our "psychological resources" and how we utilize this collected energy to digest and cope with our work lives.

Along this vein, researchers have identified a high-order construct, aptly named Psychological Capital (PsyCap). Psychological Capital is comprised of a number of key psychological resources that we bring to our work life experiences. In combination, we utilize these resources to meet the challenges of our daily work lives. (Referred to as "HERO".)
The HERO resources:

• Hope. A belief in the ability to persevere toward goals and find the methods or paths to reach them.
• Efficacy. The confidence that one can put forth the effort to affect outcomes.
• Resilience. The ability to bounce back in the face of adversity or failure.
• Optimism. A generally positive view of work and the potential of success.

Of key importance, studies have established a clear positive relationship between PsyCap and a number desired workplace outcomes, including as job satisfaction, organizational commitment and psychological well-being. Moreover, the construct has been shown to be negatively correlated with negative organizational behaviors, including cynicism, anxiety, stress, and the intention to turnover.

Impacting levels of psychological capital appears to be the next imperative (information is emerging).
On a promising note, PsyCap appears to be a "state like" quality and open to change. This is in contrast to traits that tend to be largely stable over time - such as the "Big 5" personality traits, of extroversion, agreeableness, conscientiousness, neuroticism and openness. As a result, our "stores" of psychological capital can be developed and strengthened. Certainly, this has broad implications for key workplace attributes such as the quality of performance feedback, role design and leadership style.

Do you feel that focusing on PsyCap could enhance our work lives? How can we apply the concept wisely?

How to Impress Candidates

Posted on Linked In by: Maren Hogan


Recruiters get a bad rap, even when the companies they work for are great. But it can be a tough (albeit rewarding) job to do when you live in a flyover state, don’t have work-flex to offer and well…you’re not the biggest brand in the fun house (employer or otherwise). What do candidates want? Well, you might not be able to offer the perks of Zappos, the fun of Google, or the culture of Amazon, but what can you offer? That’s a very important question. What can you feasibly offer to candidates to turn heads? Every company wants to be the company for whom people want to work. But that’s not always feasible, if candidates were lining up at your door, your job would get kind of boring pretty quickly. Every company wants to create a buzz, here are a few steps to achieving that:

 

What’s your policy?

Did you know that a whopping 24 percent of Millennials said that a company’s social media policy would be a key factor in accepting a position? This particular group puts a huge emphasis on their gadget and social media freedoms, so create your social media policies with this in mind and make it known. Until just recently, social media policies didn’t even exist, and now people are accepting or rejecting job offers based on them! Who cares if other companies aren’t doing it, tweet your policy, Facebook it, include it in job listings. Like it or not, this is a major factor today. This is a cost-free and really simple bullet for your recruiting arsenal. Companies like Coca-Cola and Apple make theirs public and so do all these companies.

Do you offer stability?

In reaching an older audience, your Baby Boomers and Gen Xers, (no, Gen Xers I didn’t just call you older, but face it, you are older than the Millennials) things like work ethic and loyalty tend to carry more weight. These are two things that are harder to relay to candidates. So get creative. If your company has a high turnover rate, don’t tout that, but are you loyal in other places? I recently heard a story about a young man whose apartment caught fire. His employer (an auto-body shop) gave him a $500 gift card to Wal-Mart immediately and a week off. Compare this with a moderately successful insurance marketing agency that requires employees to sign out to go to the bathroom and asked employees to donate their vacation time to a co-worker when his wife died. Other ideas: Perhaps some of your more tenured candidates would be willing to sit down for a short interview that would be featured on the company’s website or social media accounts. Or maybe you could even just snag a few short quotes about what they like about the company that contain or are followed by the number of years they have been with the company. Financial security and stability are also very important to this group. Let them know about your stock plans, your 401Ks and your pension plans. Again, know your audience and deliver on what they want.

Accentuate the Positive

Use social media to showcase your workplace positives. There are so many free sites that can potentially reach a whole lot of candidates. Fun and informative content attracts followers, friends, tweeps…whatever you want to call them. Some guidelines, if I may:

• Consciously create your social media image. If you’re trying to create a laid back, fun atmosphere, don’t make your avatar a slanted suit and tie wearing comb over with a big cheesy grin. Put concerted thought into the things you post. Have a very clear direction that you’re going, and relay that to your entire social team. Don’t pull a bait-n-switch; if you are a boring workplace, don’t pretend to be party animals. Instead, bill yourselves as stable and serene.
• If you don’t know how to run your social media outlets, either learn, or have someone else do it. Looking incompetent on social media is professional suicide. If the world sees that you can’t figure out a site that their 8-year old nephew has mastered, that doesn’t look good. Outsource this to someone who knows your industry or find an ambitious internal pro to handle it.
• Keep your sites updated and consistent. It doesn’t take long to make updating and posting a weekly or even daily task on your to-do list. A few short Vine video links on your homepage, scheduling the tweets for the week on Hootsuite, or some fun inner-office quotes and pictures on your Facebook page. There are countless possibilities for this (again) free and simple way to showcase your workplace positives. Post a picture of Taco Thursdays or the Company Picnic.

Branding videos have recently become a fantastic way to present your company culture to your candidates. You might not have the production budget of branding video greats like IBM, but take a hint from them and others like them. Videos are easy to create and share. A short and simple video featuring interviews from employees is a very effective way of giving candidates a taste of what your company is about. Authenticity and stressing positives are going to be your two main points of focus for whatever type of video you chose to share.

Leading Like Margaret Thatcher

Posted on Linked In by: Matthew Bishop

 

RIP Margaret Thatcher, Britain’s first female prime minister, who changed her country and the world, sometimes for better, sometimes for worse. She was known as the Iron Lady, but she also had balls of steel, a tin ear and, at times, a heart of stone. Love her or hate her, she taught us some important lessons about leadership – especially about how to lead by being unreasonable.



The Power of Unreasonable People. Mrs T was called the Iron Lady because of her formidably strong will. Once she decided that something needed to be done, nothing was going to stop her. As she put it, at a moment when her followers were having second thoughts and wanted a U-turn, “you turn if you want to; the Lady is not for turning.” She was one of those leaders who achieve change by being what George Bernard Shaw famously called “unreasonable people”, in the sense that “reasonable people adapt themselves to the world. Unreasonable people attempt to adapt the world to themselves.” Shaw believed that all human progress was the result of these unreasonable people.

Balls of Steel. To be an unreasonable leader requires tremendous personal strength of character and a willingness to take risk. Mrs Thatcher (later Lady Thatcher) took charge at a time of great despair about Britain’s future, with the economy in a mess and a widespread belief at home and abroad that the country was no longer a world power. She challenged head on the conventional wisdom that nothing could be done with policies ranging from privatizing large chunks of the public sector to refusing to allow Argentina’s invasion of the Falkland Islands to succeed.

At the time, many people found this bold style of leadership surprising for a woman, though Mrs T was merely “leaning in” and taking charge long before Sheryl Sandberg recommended it. This sort of leadership can be extraordinarily inspiring, as Mrs Thatcher showed, especially to others who have become disillusioned with the existing situation and with other leaders who spout the conventional wisdom that nothing can be done. A few highly motivated people can defeat a vast number of unmotivated people who believe they are stuck with the status quo.

Tin Ear. When you are defying the conventional wisdom, it can help to be a little deaf. You cannot afford to be distracted by all the noise around you. A little blind, too. Admiral Nelson famously put his telescope to his blind eye to avoid seeing a signal from his commander telling him he could retreat from a battle. Yet this can have its downsides: a truly deaf leader fails to make good use of feedback loops that can provide valuable information.

For instance, Mrs Thatcher was clearly surprised by the strength of the rebellion among her own supporters that led them ultimately to ditch her as their leader; had she been a good listener, she would perhaps have been able to address the causes of the unrest, and save herself. The lesson here for aspiring leaders is that the tin ear is useful occasionally as a tactic, but it is crucial you do not become truly deaf to what is going on around you.

Heart of Stone. To many people, including myself growing up, Mrs Thatcher came across as uncaring and even heartless. People who knew her personally say this was far from the reality, as was illustrated well by the scene in the recent film, “Iron Lady”, starring Meryl Streep as Mrs T, where she personally wrote letters of thanks and sympathy to the families of every member of the armed forces who died during the Falklands campaign.

Perhaps given the controversial nature of the changes she wanted, which caused disruption and pain to many families and communities in parts of the country where public sector jobs were axed, she was bound to be seen as heartless by some people. And it must be hard to maintain a spirit of compassion when, as in Mrs Thatcher’s case, many people publicly shout about their hatred of you, and your life is nearly taken by terrorists. Leading change can require a thick skin, for sure.
Yet, I believe, Mrs Thatcher contributed to her unpopularity among a large part of the British population through her failure to do more to ease the pain of those who suffered most from her policies, such as coal mining towns which lost their mines, and by the apparent harshness of some of her public statements, such as calling trade unions the “enemy within” and saying “there is no such thing as society”. As a result, some of the sensible changes she introduced remains unappreciated, even though four subsequent prime ministers have continued with them largely intact. This helps explain why Britons are not united in affection for their late leader in the way Americans were when Ronald Reagan died.

Even so, if you want to be an unreasonable leader, one lesson is that you should not expect to be popular or to get much gratitude.

But when does it make sense to adopt an “unreasonable” leadership style?

Mrs Thatcher succeeded because, first, there was clearly a massive problem with things as they were. Thus a significant number of people were willing to accept that change was needed, even if they were not clear about what had to be done. Second, she came up with a solution that worked – not perfectly, but well enough that many of her changes remain largely in place over two decades after she was ousted. Had she been more selective with her tin ear, and demonstrated more compassion to those who were being hurt by the process of change, the end of her career might have been happier, and her memory more widely celebrated.

Do you face a situation where big change is needed? Do you have a workable solution? Do you have balls of steel? Then maybe this is your moment to get in touch with your inner Iron Lady and be an unreasonable leader. But take care how you use that tin ear, and never let your heart turn to stone.

What do you think?

Photo: Manchester Daily Express/SSPL/Getty Images

The "Fourth Way" to Get Ahead in Your Career

Posted on Linked In by: Don Peppers

In commenting on my recent post “Lean Back: 6 Post-Macho Management Principles,” LinkedIn member Roy Fraser suggests there are only three ways to get ahead in this world: “be first, be smarter, or cheat.” And while I do agree that these are three time-tested ways to get ahead, I disagree that they are the only pathways to a successful business career.

At the outset, let’s be crystal clear about what success really means. This may sound a bit hard-nosed, but career success is a relative term. The world is a competitive place, not just for businesses, but for the managers and executives who staff them as well. The very expression “getting ahead” is a description of competitive success. You are literally “getting ahead” of somebody else – someone who hasn’t competed as successfully as you have.

So yes, being first and being smarter will always be career assets, enabling you to get noticed more than others, to secure others' cooperation and support, or to achieve your goal. To that end, you should always strive to be well informed, knowledgeable, and open-minded. Never stop learning about new technologies, new ways of interacting with others, and new business models being tested by others. This is especially important in our ever more rapidly innovating economic system. And I'll continue to talk about how you can improve in this area in future posts.

But for now let's talk about Roy's suggested third way for getting ahead, cheating. Like the parasites found on any living organism, cheaters will always be with us, no matter how trustworthy our society is, in general. In fact, the more trustworthy a society, the more lucrative the opportunity is for cheaters. And it's definitely possible to get ahead in business by stealing others' ideas, or taking credit where credit isn't due, or foisting the blame for errors on someone else. We've all seen this kind of thing happen, haven't we? Many of us have been victimized by it personally.

But cheaters lead mean and unsatisfying personal lives. You can accumulate wealth by cheating, but the only satisfaction you are likely to have is the wealth itself, because there will be little sense of accomplishment or mastery. Moreover, in today’s hyper-connected, highly transparent world, the risk of getting caught and the penalty for being exposed are both much more severe than before.

Transparency raises both the cost and the risk of keeping a secret, so extreme transparency demands extreme trust. Even without being publicly exposed, if you regularly resort to cheating it will be virtually impossible to hide your less-than-honest approach from your closer friends and loved ones, who will soon come to suspect your motives and “count their change” in all their dealings with you.
But I'd like you to consider a fourth way to get ahead, competitively, which is the exact opposite of cheating: Being trustable.

Martha Rogers and I have written an entire book on the advantages that a business in the e-social era can generate simply by being proactively trustworthy (which we call "trustable") with its customers. These advantages include such things as higher customer loyalty and referrals, resilience in the face of rapidly evolving business models, and increased shareholder value.

But being trustable can also benefit your own personal competitive struggle for success in your business career, also. Suppose you were to develop a reputation for always acting in your coworker's interest, never taking advantage of a colleague's mistake, oversight, or lack of knowledge, and even proactively helping colleagues to achieve their own successes.

If this is the way you come to be seen by others, then you’ll soon find that other people (including even some of your own rivals) will want you to succeed. Partly this will be because your success now furthers their own self-interest. But I think the stronger, less appreciated reason for this is that it’s a natural human instinct to return good will with good will. This social instinct is so strong that it is virtually irresistible for all but the psychopaths among us.

Whatever the reason, however, the fact is that the more others see their interests to be aligned with yours, the more support you’ll receive from them, and the more competitively successful you will be in your own career.

Being trustable should be regarded as a competitive strategy for career success. It is the "fourth way" to get ahead. And unlike cheating, it will pay dividends not just in terms of your professional advancement, but your personal happiness as well.

The Top 10 Mistakes Hiring Managers Make When Courting Candidates

Posted on LinkedIn by Nicole Cox


It takes two to tango, but only one to tangle things up.
Here’s my list of the top 10 mistakes hiring managers make during the candidate courtship:

1. Damaged goods? — Plenty of good talent was downsized during the recession, through no fault of their own. More important is what the candidate has been doing with that time off — it might be an eye opener. For example, a hiring manager looking for business development talent may discover that a candidate has been launching an online side business, demonstrating exactly the kind of entrepreneurial spirit the job requires.
2. Talking too much – Sure, hiring managers should talk about their expectations, management style, etc. But it’s just as important for them to listen, and then probe deeper based on the answers they hear.
3. R-E-S-P-E-C-T – I’ve heard stories of hiring managers (HMs) arriving late to in-person interviews and even no-showing for phone interviews. HMs are busy, just as we all are, but even a small slight can send the wrong signal.
4. Scare tactics – This amounts to self-sabotage. Every job has challenges, but there are ways of framing that information. I’m not saying HMs shouldn’t be up front, but they shouldn’t talk the candidate out of accepting!
5. Love ‘em or leave ‘em, but don’t lead ‘em on – Pretending to be interested after the interview just to avoid being uncomfortable is spurious and, well, chicken. In fact, a couple of nuggets of feedback could prove to be golden for a candidate. For example, you might say, “Thanks for coming in, but I’m looking for someone with a stronger background in continuous improvement.”
6. What’s in it for them? – Most HMs are quick to list what they need in a candidate, but they also need to be able to explain why the position is a good fit for the candidate.
7. Show me the money – Some HMs think that as long as they know the salary range and the candidate’s salary history, they have enough to justify a low-ball offer. But hiring is a market transaction, and HMs need to consider market data as well.
8. Wouldn’t you like to know? — Don’t ask something like, “What year did you graduate from college?” That’s right: it opens the door for accusations of age discrimination. Encourage HMs to represent their company with professionalism, and also to be aware of legal and risk management issues in interviewing and recruiting.
9. Too many dates and too little commitment – That’s is a sure way to kill interest. HMs may want multiple people to interview a candidate, but they should try to schedule them all on the same day.
10. You said you’d call – If there is an unavoidable delay between the offer and the start date, HMs need to keep a new hire engaged. Recommend that the HM invite the candidate to a team event, or to meet for lunch.

17 Ways Teachers Are Using iPhones In Education

Added on LinkedIn By Roger Riddell


Think iPhones don’t belong in the classroom? Well, think again. Technology in higher education is going mobile, and smartphones are becoming more and more ingrained in daily life for faculty and students alike.

At Education Dive, we have already looked at the role of Apple’s iPad in schools, as well as some of the major app releases that educations should be paying attention to. We know know Android phones are useful and that some schools are looking at Windows phones. Nevertheless, Apple still has a formidable app store, and colleges and
 universities are finding some brilliant ways
 to work the devices into tech initiatives.

1. PROJECTION
Using Epson’s iProjection App, instructors at Kirkwood Community College in Iowa are able to project content from iPhones, iPads or iPods through Epson3LCD PowerLite projectors via a wireless connection. In one scenario, an instructor may send a group of students in an alternative energy course to a wind turbine and have them stream their trip back to the class. For the college’s film classes, the setup has been particularly useful for projecting a Netflix stream.

2. ROOM ACCESS
A 5-month pilot utilizing NFC-enabled iPhone 4/4S cases as access cards for dorms and dining halls received an overwhelmingly positive response from students. The cases, made available through a partnership with CBORD, allowed the students to use their iPhones to do anything they’d normally do with their campus ID card. The cases were a necessity since Apple doesn’t currently build NFC technology into iPhones—something Villanova’s card systems director, Kathy Gallagher, hopes will change in future models.

3. AS MICROSCOPES
Using an iPhone, tape, flashlight and camera lens, doctors in Pemba Island, which is located off the eastern coast of Tanzania, were able to diagnose intestinal worms in around 200 students. It was the first time an improvised iPhone microscope was used in the field to make a diagnosis. Scientists at the University of California, Davis, rigged a similar microscope two years ago using an iPhone, small ball lens and rubber sheet.

4. FOR REPORTING CLASSES
As mobile reporting skills have become a standard in journalism, so to have those skills worked their way into journalism schools. At Leeds Trinity University, all postgraduate broadcast journalism students were given an iPhone 5 when classes began and required to use the smartphones in their reporting of the school’s Journalism Week. Live coverage via Twitter and production of multimedia content were a necessity, and despite the steep learning curve, the instructor and students were all satisfied with the results.

5. FOR CUSTOM CAMPUS APPS
Many universities, like the University of Georgia, are developing their own campus admissions apps. UGA’s campus app is currently on version 3.0 and features an application status check for prospective students, a transfer credit equivalency guide, campus map and campus news, among other things.Stanford University was one of the first to develop such an app, and the students behind it have gone on to produce apps for numerous universities around the country when Blackboard purchased their startup.



6. AS “SUPER-CLICKERS”
At Abilene Christian University, which piloted the first large-scale university iPhone handout in 2008, an in-house app transforms students’ iPhones into “super clickers.” The app solves issues associated with the typical clicker devices used in large lecture courses, as most students aren’t likely to forget to bring their phones and the app allows questions beyond simple multiple choice. The app can even display answers in cloud format, with frequent answers in large font, and can quickly display results on a screen.

7. TO TEACH STUDENTS HOW TO DEVELOP FOR iOS
This entry is probably a bit of a no-brainer. For universities with iOS development programs, Apple offers its iOS Developer University Program for free. Instructors and professors at participating universities, such as Indiana University and the University of Illinois, are able to create a development team with as many as 200 students, and the program puts all the tools they need to develop iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch apps at their fingertips.

8. WITH QR CODES
Several universities are using QR codes, which can be read by iPhones with a special app and typically link to a product website. You may have noticed these blocky jumbles popping up in advertising during the last few years, but codes linking to useful information were worn on t-shirts by orientation staff at Washington and Lee Universities, and Hamilton College used them in high school recruiting posters. The University of Bristol even designed one in the shape of a bridge, which linked to an exclusive section of the school’s website, for outdoor billboards.

9. AS A MOBILE TEXTBOOK DELIVERY SYSTEM
The University of Leeds issued iPhones preloaded with applications containing course texts such as reference materials and prescription guidelines to 500 medical students. All fourth and fifth year medical students at the school receive the iPhones, but are required to return them upon graduation. The effort, which began in 2010, was lauded by the university as a first for medical schools in the U.K.

10. TO TEACH STUDENTS AT FOREIGN CAMPUSES REMOTELY
University of Louisville instructor Ralph Merkel uses the iPhone’s FaceTime app to remotely teach students enrolled in his video communication course at the university’s Panama campus. Though the semester begins via FaceTime, he later joins the students in Panama and completes the course face-to-face. Merkel first used this method last fall, and plans to do so again for fall 2013.

11. TO PROVIDE REAL-TIME FEEDBACK
Developed as part of Purdue University’s Studio Project, the Hotseat app allows students to provide real-time feedback while in the classroom. Professors can then use this feedback to adjust course content and improve students’ learning experience. Students aren’t just confined to using an iPhone or other mobile device to provide the feedback, thought—the app is also available through Facebook, Twitter and its own web application.

12. TO PROVIDE GRADES AND CLASS SCHEDULES IN REAL TIME
Ohio State University’s OSU Mobile app includes many of the features of other campus apps, like maps, emergency alert messaging and a bus locator. What it has in addition to that, however, is the ability to instantly access grades, class schedules and any other BuckID information. The app even has the ability to import a student’s class schedule into their phone’s calendar.



13. TO PROVIDE CAMPUS CRIME DATA
The rise of mobile technology has led to at least one school—the University of California, Davis—removing most, if not all, of its stationary emergency landline phones from campus. After all, cell phones are commonplace now and apps like MyForce Campus Interface have pretty much rendered the campus emergency phones of old obsolete. MyForce allows students and faculty to send campus police an alert with the push of a button, and also notifies the appropriate authorities if the individual is outside of campus law enforcement’s jurisdiction. Plus, it provides crime data for campuses and their surrounding areas.

14. TO HELP STUDENTS NAVIGATE CAMPUS WITH GPS
Remember getting lost searching for classes during your first year on campus? Many campus apps, offered by schools ranging from Oklahoma City Community College to The University of Edinburgh in the U.K., feature GPS on their campus maps to help students easily locate the correct buildings or campus landmarks. It may not be the most cutting edge use of an iPhone on this list, but it’s useful nevertheless.

15. TO PROMOTE THEMSELVES
While iTunes U might be used as a method to disseminate course materials, universities can also use it to promote themselves. Stanford, Yale, Oxford andUC-Berkeley are among the institutions that offer free content—including courses, lectures and books—on public iTunes U sites, making the platform the largest catalog of free education content online. It’s not hard to imagine that part of the idea behind giving away the content is to provide prospective students and lifelong learners with a taste of what the institution has to offer.

16. TO TAKE ATTENDANCE
David M. Reed, a professor at Capital University in Ohio, uses his iPhone to take keep a digital backup of class attendance. After spending two weeks coding a custom app, he had the perfect app for the job and now lists it on iTunes for other professors to use at a cost of $4.99. Since then, 7,500 people have downloaded the app, which now includes a “flashcard” feature to help learn the names of students.

17. TO COLLECT DATA FOR RESEARCH
At the University of California, Davis, Professor Fraser Shilling utilized the iPhone for his roadkill research by asking drivers to help him log any dead animals they saw on the side of the road. To help facilitate the data collection process, his research team created a custom iPhone app that allows users to take a photo of the roadkill with the phone and records the exact coordinates of the carcass with the phone’s GPS. Researchers hope the data will help identify roadkill “hotspots” where warning signs can be placed.

Job Seekers: Never Do This On Mondays

By J.T O'Donnell

There’s one rule I always tell job seekers about job search activities on a Monday: Never, I mean never, call to check the status of your application, or where the hiring manager is in the decision-making process for a job on a Monday.

Here’s Why…

Mondays are the least popular day of the work week. Even the most cheerful of workers struggles to get in the groove on a Monday. Given 84% of Americans surveyed last year said they’d like a new job, it’s safe to say the majority of people aren’t in the best mood. Adding stress or pressure to their day is not going to help you.
So, as much as you are dying to know where you stand, I’d suggest waiting until later in the week for several reasons:

1. If the hiring manager hasn’t made any progress, they won’t appreciate you reminding them.
2. If you aren’t in the running, they won’t be thrilled about having to give you the bad news.
3. If they are super busy and planned to address the hiring process later in the week, they won’t appreciate you trying to push them to address it sooner.

Ironically, all that can change on a Tuesday when they are organized for the week and back in the productivity zone.
Why?
I don’t know, but trust me when I say job seekers should spend Mondays researching companies and identifying who they want to network with. Save the actually calling for Tuesdays and you’ll see people will be in better moods and respond to you more positively.

Your Next Step

If you liked this advice, then I encourage you to check out my new video series. Each video provides tips for executing an easier job search in this economy.
My videos are completely free and I’m confident you’re going to find them useful. The link to access the first one is below.

About J.T. O'Donnell

Job Search & Career Expert. Syndicated Speaker & Author. Wife. Mother. CEO of CAREEREALISM Media. Connect with her on Twitter or LinkedIn.