Author : maureen collinsProper use of facts when you talk about performance sets the scene for rational, safe and constructive discussion Preparation of facts before opening a discussion on performance is an essential first step toward a good performance appraisal

Problems arise when a manager opens a conversation on performance with an emotional accusation and does not make the facts clear Afterwards he thinks the problem has been addressed, when all he has gained is a demotivated employee

Consider what should be a straightforward conversation between a manager and one of his people about use of an office telephone for private calls The manager knows that the employee is aware of the limit on personal calls They have spoken about it before The facts are clear The manager is looking at a phone bill that is ten times over the limit He is furious

He goes to the employee at his desk in the open plan area What is going on here, he says, raising his voice, and waving the telephone bill in the air This is ridiculous! You know the rules! People close by look up

The accusation is unmistakable The employee defends himself, says he did not know that he had made so many calls, and that he had forgotten about the limit He mumbles something about being sorry and that he will not do it again He goes back to work The manager thinks that because he has spoken to the employee about the problem, he has solved it But the employee, instead of thinking about his use of the telephone, is feeling angry and resentful about the way his manager accused him in front of his colleagues

Consider how the conversation sounds when the manager uses the facts to hold the employee accountable Calling the employee to his office, he says: We need to talk about this telephone bill He puts the document on the desk and introduces the three key facts

I have told everyone about the limit on personal calls
Last month I pointed out that you had gone over the limit
This month,here are the figures,you are nearly ten times over the limit

With the facts on the table, he says: I am really concerned about this When we talked about it before, you undertook to limit the number of calls you make Then he invites the employee into the conversation, to account for his behaviour He uses a simple, open question: What is going on?

With this approach, there is no accusation, and nothing is said that creates defensiveness in the employee With the facts on the table, the accountability cannot be avoided The conversation that follows has a good chance of uncovering the whole story and the manager has the best chance of gaining commitment from the employee to change his ways

When you want to get to the bottom of a problem, you need to create a conversation in which the other person feels safe to speak up If you start out with an emotional accusation, you do not create a safe environment for open dialogue Open conversations with facts: they make it safe to talk Maureen Collins trains people how to handle difficult conversations, on difficult topics, with difficult people in her consulting practice, Straight Talk. She has a B.Sc. degree in Psychology from Edinburgh University and over 25 years of consulting experience. She consults in communication in the workplace. Go to http://www.straight-talk.co.za for free downloads and Straight Talk Tips.

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Author : Michael KellyIf you’re a company that prides itself on providing recruitment services to young employees and workers throughout your area, you need to have a process in place to actually know who’s hiring Right now especially with the economy in turmoil and the risk of rising unemployment always on the horizon, there is a real need to be able to understand what each company’s needs are Here are some quick tips to find out who’s hiring and how you can get the first nip at those recruitment leads

Contacting the Right Companies

When you want to know who’s hiring, it never hurts to have a list of companies that is best to contact first These companies are going to be ones that are currently growing, have high turnover, or who have worked with you in the past and like your business Additionally, you will want to be sure that you keep an ongoing list of new leads coming in to supplement your business and keep up the flow when the economy takes a hit, as it is right now

Ignoring Hiring Freezes

While many businesses will answer “who’s hiring” with “we’re in a hiring freeze”, the truth is that no company is ever in a real hiring freeze What this really means is that no new positions are being created and all non-essential vacancies are being left empty However, many spots will open up for vital positions that are vacated Turnover at most companies averages between 15-25% annually so if you are in place to take advantage of those spikes in turnover that naturally occur, you can know who’s hiring first, even when they officially are not

Knowing the Right People

Finding out who’s hiring can be hard without some solid internal contacts You can do this by keeping up to date with HR managers and other employees in large businesses who can give you heads up if they are hiring This is a tricky matter and comes down to a sales like strategy that can be hard to maintain while running your business though

Hiring an Outside Firm

Which is what brings us to the last method for finding out who’s hiring There are companies out there that provide recruitment leads to companies like yours when they need them The best part about these outside companies is that they work regularly to develop ongoing lists of recruitment leads that are taken from a wide variety of resources Professional callers and lead generators work day in and day out to find out who’s hiring and provide you with as up-to-date lists as possible

In the end, if you really need to find out who’s hiring so that your business can thrive in a down turning economy, there are many resources out there to help you do so One of the best methods though is always going to be to turn to a professional that knows what they are doing from the start Only then can you be sure that you get first crack at who’s hiring every time
Michael Kelly is the managing director for Recruitment Alerts, a company that maintains databases of who’s hiring on a consistent basis to provide ongoing results and up to date information on new recruitment alerts.

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Author : Matthew StantonLegal resumes build rapport from you to across your potential employer By it, the law firm you are applying for will know your professional record at a glance It is therefore vital and important that you get your resume right

Avoiding mistakes Resume writing requires one to be detail-conscious of the text For example, no matter how great we are in the mastery of English, or how speedy we are in our typing skills, there are bound to be typographical errors in our text Sometimes we are just so blind to our regular typos Therefore, you need to have two or more pairs of eyes editing your work This will eliminate spelling and grammatical errors in your resume

Another very significant mistake is trying to intentionally omit information from your resume The right and honest disclosure of information is absolutely critical to your employment, as your employers will perceive your integrity through the level of disclosure you put in your work This is true particularly those who try to omit graduation and employment dates, and the titles you garnered at some previous work

Resume Writers Maybe somehow you just can’t get the resume right You may have all the required information: the notable accomplishments here, the extraordinary work experiences there, your numerous affiliations in between, and all of those are beefed up by an impressive academic record

Maybe you don’t have the creative gene in you, and formatting your points clearly may not be your cup of tea With today’s wired world that would seem almost an impossible

Or maybe you just don’t have the time to spend crafting a meticulous legal resume

Whatever it is that prevents you from creating that terrific resume, maybe it’s time for you to hire somebody else to do that

There are many professional legal resume writers in the country, most of them having arisen from retired lawyers or from dedicated departments in law firms A majority of these writers are or have been attorneys and legal professionals, and so they have the best qualifications to creating a particular resume for a certain legal job

Obviously, the professionals are to be the one that you have to trust Having a newbie write for you isn’t a wise decision at all, and may decrease your chances of landing a dream job In order to obtain the services of a resume writer, one must be prepared to spend time researching on the best and the most worthwhile writers Factors to include are: their rate of success in landing their clients to a desired position, their accuracy and promptness in producing the finished product, and of course, the price they charge for a single work

Having a professional resume writer or a close and trusted attorney friend to coach is all the more important when you are a lawyer just starting out his career The right resume will make you stand out from the thousands of would-be attorneys out there, and will make it easier for you to land a job Having that perfect legal resume will get you a call from your potential employer in no time Matthew Stanton writes an article about
Legal resume
and very handy suggestion to allow your resume to get you over that employment bridge. Simply visit this site for information at http://www.esqresume.com/

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Author : Karen ScharfThere comes a time in every entrepreneur’s life when they realize they just can’t do it alone They realize they’re maxed out - either on time or ability - and there’s no way their business will grow until they start delegating some tasks

If that sounds like you, then keep reading And if that doesn’t sound like you, then keep reading

No, that wasn’t a typo No matter what stage your business is in, there are a few steps you need to take right now to prepare for growth and to prepare for hiring your first assistant

Usually, when it comes to hiring an assistant, I hear two objections The first is “Oh, I could never afford an assistant” and the second is “I can’t trust anyone to do it right ” And the funny thing is, I was in both of those positions myself at one time or another

When I first started my business many years ago, I was fortunate enough to land some big contracts with some big clients The crummy part was, these contracts required lots and lots of hours of work

And I just didn’t think anyone else could understand the scope of the projects like I did; no one else would have had the anal-retentive attention to detail that I had; and if someone made a mistake, ultimately it was my name that was on the line So I ended up doing it all myself

When I realized I hate working with big corporations and shifted my focus to working with entrepreneurs and start-up businesses, my income was cut dramatically Actually, “cut” is probably an under-statement; “butchered” is more like it Sliced, diced and shredded Pulverized Vaporized

The point is, my income just wasn’t there And at that point in time I figured I could never hire an assistant

But I also knew I was working insane hours And a lot of what I was doing was non-income-producing tasks Things like sorting and filing Cleaning out email Going to the bank Running to the post office

My time was so filled with these other activities that I didn’t have time to work on growing my business So I bit the bullet and decided it was time to bring on an assistant

I’ll walk you through the process I went through so hopefully you can learn from my mistakes and triumphs

Triumph: I started small at first, and that is something I would recommend that you do also My first assistant was Paige and (although I’m sure she wouldn’t like to hear this) I would classify her as a “kid”

She started out by doing little tasks like filing and stuffing envelopes for my direct mail clients And even though each task took her longer to do than it would have taken me, it freed my time up to concentrate on revenue and growth activities

Mistake: I brought Paige on without a clear cut plan I kind of threw odd tasks at her as they came up I didn’t have a plan ahead of time of what she would do or how she would do it I’ll show you how to avoid this mistake in a minute

Mistake: Expecting Paige to read my mind I have been so spoiled by the ever-so-wonderful Michelle! I can come up with a vague idea, just a whisper of a thought, and Michelle will take it and run with it She doesn’t need much direction She doesn’t need much guidance It’s as if she “just knows” Don’t expect that from your assistant!

Paige needed direction She needed me to tell her, step by step, exactly what to do Even now, after we’ve been working together for a while, there are times that I don’t give her thorough directions and the results are, let’s just say “less than optimal” Be prepared to spell out to your assistant exactly what you want done

Triumph: Figuring out what Paige was really good at and utilizing those strengths I soon discovered that Paige has this amazing talent for staying calm Nothing ruffles her feathers and nothing causes her to go off-kilter

I started letting her handle clients who were past due on their invoices She could get on the phone, in what could have ended up being a “yucky” situation, and calmly arrange a payment plan Because of her demeanor, both she and the client ended up satisfied If I had hired an agency to deal with those situations, I’m not sure what the outcome would have been

Mistake: Not being prepared for a “no Paige” situation Even though I started giving Paige step by step directions for every task, they were only verbal directions Paige had everything in her head

So when Paige left on a 2 week vacation, I was stuck doing all her tasks on my own If I had had written directions, I could have easily brought in a replacement while Paige was gone

Even If You’re Not Ready To Hire Your First Assistant, Here Are Some Steps You Should Be Taking Right Now

1 Keep Track of What You Do
Take a few minutes every day to jot down the things you’re doing Keep a simple note pad with you, and every hour just write down all the tasks you’ve done And I do mean everything

Don’t skip the little things like checking email Or running to Kinkos It’s these little things that keep you from your revenue generating activities

Jot down everything, but don’t worry about getting too specific You just want a list of basic activities Do this each day for an entire week

2 Decide What Can Be Delegated
Go through your list and cross out any revenue generating activities Next, cross out any activities that involve direct contact with your customers or clients These are the types of activities that you will mentally have the hardest time letting go of so we won’t even take them into consideration for now

You should be left with a list of non-client, non-revenue activities Look for any activities that appear on more than one day and circle them Now, look for circled items that appear multiple times in one day and place a star by them If you checked your email 6 times on Tuesday, it should be circled and starred

Any items that are circled and starred are huge time vampires that are seriously cutting into your ability to generate a higher income These items should be delegated as soon as possible! Next, prioritize the circled items that will also be delegated when time and budget permit

3 Start Creating Your Operations Manual
Next time you go to do one of your time vampire activities, allow yourself a few extra minutes to write down, step by step, exactly how you do that particular activity

Write down every single little step, even if it seems like a no-brainer Since many of my delegated activities involve technical tasks and software programs, I actually take screen shots of my computer screen and include those in my directions

Create a directions page for each one of your time vampire activities It will be a time consuming task in the beginning, but the end result will be a gigantic payoff!

Now, when you’re ready to bring on your first assistant, you’ll have exact step by step directions for everything you need done As your assistant grows with you and as you’re giving him or her additional tasks, be sure to create directions sheets for each of these new tasks (the creation of the directions sheets can be delegated to your assistant)

You’ll end up with a complete operations manual that can be used by any new assistants in the future

I really want to encourage you to bring on an assistant sooner rather than later Do like I did and start small Even if it’s a high school kid for one hour a week to file papers, the important part is developing the mindset of being able to delegate

And then, you need to dedicate that freed up hour solely to a revenue generating or business growth activity You’ll be amazed at how quickly you see progress, and you’ll be wondering how you ever lived without your new assistant

So, grab yourself a notepad and start jotting down your daily activities And prepare yourself for your business explosion!Karen Scharf is an Indianapolis marketing consultant who works with small business owners and entrepreneurs. She offers several whitepapers, free reports and checklists, including her FREE Can-Spam checklist and FREE email pre-flight checklist to ensure your emails get delivered, get opened and get read. Download your copies at http://www.ModernImage.com.

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Author : Brad LeboThe overwhelming majority of business assessment tools are designed to measure either personality, motivation (attitudes, values), or competence (skill) The first of these, personality assessment, has a long tradition in the field of psychology Despite this tradition, there is little consensus about how exactly to measure or, in fact, define personality Two widely used assessment tools illustrate the range of approaches to assessing personality

The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) is based on a theory of personality developed by the Swiss psychiatrist Carl Jung In brief, Jung asserted that all people can be categorized by where they fall along each of four scales: attitude , perception, judgment, and style of dealing with the world

While there are many ways the MBTI has been used in companies around the world, its authors clearly intended to help identify “fit” between an individual and a specific career or role Determining fit has the potential to increase job satisfaction, improve job performance, and improve employee retention

At the other end of the spectrum, the Hogan Personality Inventory (HPI) is based on observations of how people behave and how these behaviors differ among individuals In other words, the HPI focuses less on what personality characteristics determine or drive behavior (a theory of personality) and more on what behavior is observable to self and others

The HPI has seven scales: adjustment, ambition, sociability, interpersonal sensitivity, prudence, inquisitiveness, and learning approach Individuals who score high on the ambition scale, for example, tend to be leader-like, energetic, driven, etc while individuals who score low tend to prefer tasks assigned to them and following rather than leading

The HPI is intended to be used for personnel selection, individualized assessment, and career-related decision making It is designed to predict suitability for a particular role, satisfaction of a particular career, and leadership potential

Other widely used measures of personality include the Dominance Influence Steadiness Submission (DiSC) assessment and the Neuroticism-Extroversion-Openness Personality Inventory - Revised (NEO-PI-R)

At this point, an analogy might be helpful If personality is the APPROACH we use to get to where we are going, then motivation is the goal of our journey–WHERE we want to go So, if you really want to understand someone, it is important to know both their APPROACH to getting there (their personality) and WHERE they want to go (their motivation)

Motivation assessment includes measures of attitudes, values, needs, interests, goals, and, of course, motivation Like personality assessment, motivation assessment includes a broad variety of techniques for measuring “motivation” Most of the measure are based on one or more theories of motivation

In general, theories of motivation propose explanations of behavior based on individuals trying to avoid something or, alternatively, individuals trying to achieve something In other words, motivation is seen as inspiring activity toward some end that is not yet realized (including “ends” that are never achievable like absolute power, perfection, and universal harmony)

One widely used measure of motivation is the Motivation Insights Assessment (MIA) The MIA is based on the writings and research of Eduard Spranger, a German psychologist, as well on as contributions to the study of values by Gordon Allport, Philip Vernon, and Gardner Lindzey

The MIA has six scales: theoretical, utilitarian/economic, aesthetic, social/altruistic, individualistic/political, and traditional/regulatory It is designed to be used for employee selection and feedback The feedback includes a description of what “drives” the person and how an individual’s drives compare to the drives of others in business settings

Another approach to assessing motivation is based on the projective technique popularized in the business world by the American psychologist, David McClelland Projective techniques require that the examinee tell a story about an ambiguous stimulus like a picture or an inkblot McClelland used the Thematic Apperception Test as his source for pictures He then coded examinee responses to discern and identify motivational themes

The advantage of a projective test is that it is harder to “fake” or deceive because the potential answers are unlimited The disadvantage of the technique is that its scoring is more subjective than a test with a limited answer set

The projective technique is probably most powerful when used in conjunction with another motivation assessment tool–significantly enhancing the understanding of an individual’s motivation based on his or her combined results The IBA Motivation Assessment (IBA-MA) tool is an example of a readily available projective measure of motivation

Another widely used measures of motivation is the Motives, Values, Preferences Inventory (MVPI)

To continue with the analogy started above, if you know WHERE someone wants to go and their APPROACH to getting there, it is also helpful to know HOW SKILLED they are at implementing their approach HOW SKILLED they are is, of course, about competence

Assessing competence has many meanings because there are numerous types of competence For example, there are assessments for competence in math, writing, sales, foreign languages, emotional intelligence, and thinking ability The focus here is on assessments geared toward executives–assessments that attempt to quantify the intellectual ability and leadership skills needed to succeed as an executive

One of the most widely used competence assessment tools is the Watson-Glaser Critical Thinking Appraisal (WGCTA) The WGCTA is designed to assess examinee’s ability to use inference, deduction, and judgment when making decisions

The WGCTA is intend to help with hiring, promotion, development, and succession planning decisions It identifies competence in using business information to answer questions, determine strategy, reduce risk, and maximize organizational performance

Other competence measures that assess thinking ability include the Core Abilities Assessment (CAA), the Hogan Business Reasoning Inventory (HBRI), and Raven’s Progressive Matrices (RPM) All of these assessment tools correlate positively with success in business settings

The goal of any assessment tool is to accurately measure the ability or characteristics it is designed to measure If a particular attribute is accurately measured it is possible to predict future performance with reasonable confidence Dr. Lebo has 25 years experience, an MS in I/O Consulting, and a Ph. D. in Psychology. He is an expert at enhancing performance through effective assessment and targeted individual development. He can be reached at drlebo@intellectusassessments.com or at the website www.intellectusassessments.com.

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Author : Cathy WarschawDuring these turbulent times in our economy one of the most pressing decisions is to hire and retain the right people Every small business owner needs to be aware of the financial consequences of bringing in or retaining the wrong person in your business

The following are some guidelines which you may find helpful in interviewing prospective employees Remember poor hiring decisions are the costliest mistakes businesses make A poor hiring decision affects productivity and morale

Borderline fits can create the biggest drain in your organizational resources These are the people who do not pull their own weight, and always seem on the verge of making it We’re confident all they need is just a little more time, a little more training, a little more management help It is these borderline employees who soak up most of our creative energies while we ponder how to tap into the potential we’re so sure is there Excellent practices and good leaders appreciate the difference between an acceptable employee and the exceptional, gifted one Employees who are well matched to their tasks invariably demonstrate higher levels of initiative and creativity, stay longer, and produce more Finding excellent people is hard work and it takes strong convictions to hold the quality line under stress, especially if someone leaves unexpectedly

Prior to starting any interview get very clear on the job requirements - the skill and traits which must be present for satisfactory performance of the job Your people are your most important asset!

The interview should be conducted in a quiet place, free from distraction Your primary “job” in the interview is to listen and allow the applicant to do most of the talking - 80/20 principle You listen 80% and talk only 20% Open ended and hypothetical questions should be used most often

The most important qualities to look for in your applicants are willingness and “trainability” Look for answers which indicate a sincere interest in contributing, rather than simply what they hope to get from business

Interview Questions

1 Tell me about yourself and how did you become interested in this field (Start off by getting to know the applicant and why they chose this career )

2 Describe a typical day in your last job? What duties and responsibilities did you have in each of your jobs? What did you like about each job? What did you dislike about each job?

3 What do you consider your most important accomplishment in your present job and why?

4 Tell me about a time when a patient or team member was upset, how did you handle it?

5 Who is the best (and worse) boss you have ever had, what made him/her so special? (If the description of the worse boss sounds anything like you, you know that person will not be happy working with you )

6 Motivational and Willingness questions? What are you looking for in a job and why have you applied for this position? What kind of supervision do you prefer?
Are you willing to attend seminars to enhance job training? What is the most difficult thing you have ever overcome in your life and how did you overcome it?

In any successful hiring process be prepared to share your philosophy of practice and what you stand for so that prospective employees will know whether or not this is a practice that fits them Once hired remember TRAIN, TRAIN, AND TRAIN

Good luck in your hiring process!(c) 2009
Cathy Warschaw, Director
Warschaw Learning Institute
Online Dental Office Management Courses
http://www.WarschawLearningInstitute.com
(888) 822-0917

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