3 Ways to Deal With the Office Know-it-All

3 Ways to Deal With the Office Know-it-All3 Ways to Deal With the Office Know-it-AllSome things never change.Remember when you were a kid, and there welches always at least one of your playmates who seemed to have the answer for everything? It was annoying back then, and not surprisingly, its still annoying as an adult- especially in a work setting.It was easy enough to avoid the playground know-it-all you probably just ignored him or her and found someone else to play with. But, in a professional setting, its not quite so simple. Depending on the dynamics of your team and the relationship with your all-knowing colleague, handling his or her perceived omnipotence can be a delicate manner.If youre faced with a know-it-all in the bro, try these three strategies to deal, without having to kick sand in anyones face.1. EngageOne of the first times I encountered someone who had all the answers, I was fairly early on in my career, as was she, and I interpreted her knowledge-sharing as a sli ght against my own experience. I assumed, because she was telling me all about how a certain procedure really worked, she was implying I didnt know myself.I took offense- and blurted out something about how everyone in the group knew that, and she wasnt on to anything new. She was horrified, and soon, I was, too. Turns out, she was simply excited that shed learned something new and was eager to prove to the rest of the team she was keeping up.I felt like a complete jerk. Rather than simply joining in on the conversation and sharing my own experience on the topic, I let my ego get in the way and couldve easily damaged a great working relationship. Fortunately, we both recognized what had happened and changed how we interacted going forward.Now, when I come across a suspected know-it-all, I remind myself to cool my jets and actually listen to what the person saying- through a professional lens, rather than a personal. I pay attention to whats being said, and then I use it as a jumping -off point to engage with my colleague. If it feels like someone is telling you his or her way is the only way, ask questions about the process, and share how youve been doing things as well. Who knows- maybe between the two of you, youll find a way that really is the best2. IgnoreOK, I know I said playground tactics wont work in the office, and while thats mostly true, ignoring your know-it-all colleague is probably a good move when its clear he or she isnt just trying to fit in or collaborate with you.Ive worked with a few people like this, but the worst offenders were when I worked for a bank, essentially on a trading desk. (Think long tables with people lined up right next to one anther, with zero space or privacy.) At the time, I was the only woman on the desk, and the fellas enjoyed giving me a good roasting on nearly a daily basis. I have pretty thick skin, so that never bothered me- but when theyd butt in on phone conversations or interrupt me in the middle of complicated as signments to show me how things are done, Id lose my cool pretty quickly.Initially, Id unleash my best brand of sarcasm to put them in their place, but that rarely worked. Finally, exhausted from the effort (being sarcastic is hard work) I channeled my inner playground tactics and decide to try ignoring them instead. Every time theyd offer up their help, Id smile politely and just keep going about my business. Sometimes, Id pretend I didnt hear what they were saying, or Id get up from the desk for a few minutes until they lost interest. It worked like a charm Over time, my expert colleagues figured out I actually knew the job as well as they did- if not better- and their helpful advice abated.If your know-it-all is at a similar level to you professionally and isnt offering you any valuable advice, try politely changing the subject or excusing yourself to go visit Bob in accounting. Anything to distract your helpful colleagues from their all-knowingness. Over time, theyll get the ide a and see that their advice is falling on deaf- and completely capable- ears.3. EndureNow, if your wise colleague happens to be someone more superior- say, your boss- handling the situation gets a bit more complicated. After all, your boss is supposed to know it all, right? Yet, theres just something about how that knowledge is dropped that makes all the difference between being a mentor and being a pain in the ass.I had a boss many years ago that really knew his stuff. And if it wasnt apparent by the work he did, hed make sure you heard about it. If I was working on a complicated transaction, for example, hed peer over my shoulder at my desk and say things like, Oh, I wouldnt do it like that. Let me show you the right way to do this. Id been around the block a few times by this point, and I knew I couldnt just shut him down or try to engage. This left me only one, fairly uncomfortable option I had to hunker down and take it.Work isnt always fun or fair, which means sometimes we hav e to do things we dont like for the greater good. In my case, my boss got to feel like he was really coaching me, and although I often ended up doing things my own way in the end, he always felt as if hed done his job as a manager and mentor along the way. Definitely painful, but a win-win for everyone.Throughout your career, youll no doubt encounter a few know-it-alls, and while they can be pretty pesky, they dont have to ruin your day. Follow these guidelines to recognize where all that helpful advice might be coming from, whos giving it, and why, and youll be better equipped to handle it like an adult.Photo of office know-it-all courtesy of Shutterstock.

How to get smarter every day

How to get smarter every dayHow to get smarter every dayIntelligence is a work in progress. Everything a smart part knows, they learned from somewhere at one point or another. Getting smarter doesnt necessarily mean a huge commitment of time and energy every day.Follow Ladders on FlipboardFollow Ladders magazines on Flipboard covering Happiness, Productivity, Job Satisfaction, Neuroscience, and moreIf you can consistently train your brain to adapt to new situations and information?- ?you will get smarter with time.Work on your personal prioritiesIn five minutes, you could decide what to do next week. Track what have you learned so far to avoid getting complacent and help learn new things.Planning in a few fun anchor events gives you something to look forward to. Make a list of things you want to learn in the upcoming days.Dont over-plan and under-act though. A decision alone changes nothing. Action is the greatest gift that only you can give to yourself, so get started.Reading is ins anely essentialOpinions vary on whats the best brain-boosting reading material, with suggestions ranging from developing a daily reading habit to picking up a variety of fiction and nonfiction books.I have recommended a few books in the pastherehere, andhere.Charlie Munger once said, I constantly binnensee people rise in life who are not the smartest, sometimes not even the most diligent, but they are learning machines. They go to bed every night a little wiser than they were when they got up and boy does that help, particularly when you have a long run ahead of youEmbrace life longlearningUse theFeynman Techniqueto make sure you understand things. This is perhaps the single most effective studying tool that you can use to focus.Learning is best when you connect it to things that youve already learned. The more you know the more you can connect.Dont stop looking for answers. If something doesnt make sense to you, look for ways to expand your knowledge so that you do understand it.Su bscribe to insightful newslettersA smarter you is just a few newsletters away.Barking Up The Wrong Tree,Farnam street,Brain Pickings, andThe Longreadsare a few newsletters you should subscribe to.These newsletters share ideas on how to be awesome at life.It pays to have a knowledge source from where you can learn something new daily. Use Pocket to save insightful pieces you come across for later reading. Before going to sleep at night try to finish those.Give yourself something topursueDo something. Create something of value. Share your works. Start a passion project. You will learn more in the process even if you failure. You will be a better person than you were before you gave it a shot.No matter what you do create value.Every online break doesnt have to be about checking social feeds. Replace hours of social browsing with something more mentally nourishing activities.Challenge yourself to do something original.Start reflecting inwritingWrite down what you learn. It doesnt have t o be pretty or long, but taking a few minutes each day to reflect in writing about what you learned is sure to boost your brainpower.Write a few hundred words a day on things that you learned. Always take notes. Records brilliant thoughts you get through the day for later use. Be willing to try new things?- ?even if they dont seem immediately useful or productive.You never know what will be useful ahead of time. You just need to try new things and wait to see how they connect with the rest of your experiences later on.Share what youlearnOne of the best ways to learn something is to teach it. If you really want to learn something, find a way to teach it to others.Share your thoughts with others via a blog, podcast or vlog. Answer a question on Quora. Teach what you know on Udemy.Explain what you learn. It might help others and it will definitely help you, just for the sake of learning.The person who says he knows what he thinks but cannot express it usually does not know what he thin ks, says Mortimer AdlerWhen you share, you remember better. It challenges your understanding and forces you to think.Publish what you learn. It will help you organize your thoughts.Take time to sit insilenceTake purposeful breaks. Giving yourself space for your brain to process what its learned.A growing body of evidence shows that taking regular breaks from mental tasks improves creativity and that skipping breaks can lead to stress, exhaustion, and creative block.Idleness is not a vice, it is indispensable for making those unexpected connections in the brain you crave and necessary to getting creative work done.Spend some time tothinkThere is one activity that will have a tremendously beneficial impact on your results thinking.Unless you schedule a time to think, to really do nothing else but think, you wont do it.Dont just read for other peoples opinions, read for facts and then think. This requires time and effort. Youll have to learn how to focus.That space needs to be free fro m distractions. Your mind is a novelty-seeking device. It evolved to pay attention to things that are new and interesting.Evaluate your ideas. Ponder them. Thinking is asking yourself questions about ideas.AOL CEO Tim Armstrong, for instance, makes his executives spend 10 percent of their day, or four hours per week, just thinking. Jeff Weiner, CEO of LinkedIn, schedules two hours of uninterrupted thinking time per day.Increase mental intensityDeveloping mental strength is a work in progress. Mental strength requires that you continue building new nerven betreffend pathways by learning new things.Mental strength involves more than just willpower it requires hard work and commitment.Force yourself to use your brain more.The more regularly you pick up a new skill, or study a new subject, the stronger your mind becomes. Try to pick up one new thing every week, then continue working on it as you learn new things.Focus, strategy, logic, and creativity are just a few of the mental muscles you should be exercising more regularly.Cultivate self-awarenessAwareness is a powerful tool.The power of being self-aware is that it helps you become conscious of your own habits and decide if you need to change them.Self-awareness keeps you in touch with your emotions and the underlying feelings that influence your actions and thoughts.Self-awareness is a tremendous tool for helping us understand ourselves and be at peace with who we are. It leads to self-confidence by building on the knowledge of who you are.Create a daily habit of self-reflection.Observe your mind when you are immersed in emotion.Compete withyourselfGet one percent better every day. Focus on tiny consistent improvements every day.Learn to beat your expectations of yourself. You will learn how to handle your limits and challenges in the process.If everything is too good, youre probably stuck not being awesome.Calvin Coolidge says All growth depends upon activity. There is no development physically or intellectua lly without effort, and effort means work.If you want long-term success, stop avoiding whats hard.Stay hungryBefore yougoIf you enjoyed this post, you will lovePostanly Weekly(my free digest of the best productivity and self-improvement posts).Subscribeand get a free copy of my new eBook, The Power of One Percent Better Small Gains, Maximum Results.Join over 24,000 people who are on a mission to build a better life.You might also enjoyNew neuroscience reveals 4 rituals that will make you happyStrangers know your social class in the first seven words you say, study finds10 lessons from Benjamin Franklins daily schedule that will double your productivityThe worst mistakes you can make in an interview, according to 12 CEOs10 habits of mentally strong people

The psychological hack that can help you save more money

The psychological hack that can help you save more moneyThe psychological hack that can help you save more moneyBank of Dad is a weekly column which seeks to answer questions about how tomanage moneywhen you have a family. Want to ask aboutcollege savings accounts,mortgage hacks, or how to be a little bitbetter with money?Submit a question to Bankofdadfatherly.com. Want advice on what stocks are safe bets? Ask your broker. And then tell us. Wed love to know.I suck atsaving money. I dont buy luxurious stuff or make decisions that put my family in jeopardy, but I am bad at, say, not buying coffee out every morning or packing my lunch. I put some money away but should put more away. Were about to have a kid, so I want to get better. ur finances arent bad but they need to improve. My buddy mentioned financial psychology to me. What is it and is there any worth in looking into it? - Chris L., Kissimmee, FLIts one thing to identify areas that you need to work on in yourfinancial life.But actually changing bad habits that may have been there for years? Thats something altogether different.The latter is where financial psychology comes into play. The idea is to help individuals not only create worthwhile goals for managingmoney, but overcome the mental obstacles that tend to trip them up along the way.Its not all that different from someone trying to lose weight. How many people do you know who have found it hard to shed pounds over an extended period of time? Its not that they dont knowwhatto do. In fact, that might be the easiest parte. Its that, for whatever reason, they simply cant achieve the desired result.Some are trying to apply that same thinking to the world ofpersonal finance.The idea has certainly been catching on in recent years. Today, there are a handful of organizations that train advisors on how to recognize the attitudes and behaviors that prevent clients from reaching their goals. Does that mean youll be asked to lay on the couch and talk about you r relationship with your mother the next time you visit a financial planner?Not quite, says Dr. Bradley Klontz, who co-founded theFinancial Psychology Institutein 2002. Were not training financial advisors to be therapists by any stretch of the imagination, says Klontz. What we are doing is equipping them with the theory to understand their clients behaviors.How might this work in real life? Klontz offered me the example of an advisor whos trying to get their client to create a will but is hitting resistance. In that case, the planner might try to steer the conversation in a way that gets at the root issue behind their caginess.Of course, you can use the basic precepts behind financial psychology without necessarily working one-on-one with an advisor whos certified through FPI or another like-minded organization (Kansas State Universitys financial therapy program and the Kinder Institute of Life Planning, for example, meld these two disciplines as well).Heres a strategy that applies to your particular pitfall. When it comes to building up yoursavings, Klontz is a proponent of making your goal as tangible and as personal as possible. So if youre creating anemergency savings accountfor your new family, he suggests actually naming it after your child.Perhaps it becomes Jamies Security Fund or the like something that emotionally links each transaction with your son or daughters welfare. Suddenly pulling money out of the account to eat out or sip venti macchiatos five days a week becomes a whole lot harder. If you really want to eliminate temptations,automating your contributionsdoesnt hurt either.Klontz points to a 2017 double-blind study that he spearheaded as evidence that these emotional attachments really work. One randomly assigned group of participants was given a fairly standard lecture about building up their savings. The other group was told to bring in a nostalgic item and was prompted to talk about how their savings goals related to that item. In oth er words, they explored the reasonswhythey were putting money away.After three weeks, both groups managed to increase their savings level. But the uptick was three times greater for those who took the emotion-based approach.When you develop excitement about what you want, its really easy to pass on these things that have no meaning to you, says Klontz. But you really need to engage that emotional part of your brain.I can tell you from experience that saving andinvestingdoesnt get an easier once theres a new mouth to feed. If ever there was a time to address your financial stumbling blocks, this is it. Congratulations on your exciting news.This article was originally published on Fatherly.

5 reasons why you are not called for job interview

5 reasons why you are not called for job interview5 reasons why you are not called for job interview5 reasons why you are not called for job interviewGetting called into a job interview can be challenging, especially when your insecure about your qualifications, like many of us are. Adding to the frustration is the fact that we might have other things getting in the way of working full time, such has studying. Not all employers want to hire students. However, there are a few things you should not do, which will increase your chances of getting called into a job interview if you steer away from them. So here we go, the top five reasons why you are not called in to job interviews.courtesy of B.Accounting unsplash.comThe just not into youYou might be extremely fantastic, with the exact right qualifications, but sometimes not even that is enough to get called into a job interview. Someone else might have been better suited for the job. Maybe they were more experienced, had even better qu alifications, and had other things on their resume that sounded better for the employer. There is really nothing you can do about this point except maybe taking a look at your resume to see what you can remove and maybe some interesting facts about yourself that you could add. An employer doesnt always just look at the qualifications. They might want someone who is interested in subjects closer to what they are interested in. Again, not too much you can do about it.You didnt follow the directionsQualifications, interests, experiences. They are all really worth nothing if you do not follow the directions given. It is extremely important to tailor your resume and applications to what the company is asking for. If the company says you must have experience within a subject, make sure to show them that you do. If you apply for a job and you do not follow the directions, you might be missing out, just as they will. You could be the perfect guy or gal for the job, but they just dont know i t, because you did not tell them. Remember, if they say you have to have something, or that you need to put something on your application, do it. Read the job offer throughout, and make sure you understand what theyre asking for.Bad applicationTons of employers have said that one of the biggest and most common mistakes of a cover letter, is the fact that its for the wrong job opening. This is another point resting on the fact that you have to read the job opening throughout and make sure you understand everything. Do not, and I stress, do not send out mass emails. Make sure every application is tailored to the job, and the employers needs. If you will not bother tailoring your application for the job offer, how can they expect you to do your job with effort? Most of the problems surrounding not getting that call, is not bothering to do enough research, or spend enough time on the application. There are hundreds of people applying for the same job as you, make sure you stand out with a fantastic application.Overqualified, underqualified, or just wrongDont expect the company where you are applying a job to find the right fit for you. Make sure your qualified for the job, and that it is right for you. They need a specific job to be filled, sending them a random application will not help anything. It is pretty normal for employers to question whether or not the applicant even read the job description, and thats a huge problem.The job is takenIn many instances, you will not get a call back because the position is already filled. There is really nothing you can do about this, except continue searching for your next job.Now that youve got something to think about, all we can say is good luck with the job hunt

An Actionable Tutorial on Skills to Put on a Resume in an Easy to Follow Order

An Actionable Tutorial on Skills to Put on a Resume in an Easy to Follow Order The Advantages of Skills to Put on a Resume A fantastic sales professional is continually seeking to upgrade their knowledge base and boost their abilities. Of all types of resources available to company human skills have become the fruchtwein valuable. Your skills section stipulates a window into how much capability you are able to bring to the organization. Finding the applicants having the skills, education, and experience to fill the position is critical, yet to find truly great employees who will develop into part of your geschftliches miteinander and help build it you want to check beyond that baseline. Tzu sichefore, if you come to an interview, the absence of Soft Skills may be one reason you werent chosen for the job. Hard skills are quantifiable and frequently learned from school or at work. If you wish to showcase your organization skills, acquiring a tightly structured resume certainl y helps. Mastering soft skills is a fundamental part of succeeding to be an executive. No matter where you include your skills section on your resume, you can be sure that the hiring manager is likely to find it and definitely likely to ask about doing it. Any job you apply for will call for interpersonal skills of some sort. Hard skills have a tendency to be more technical, and each business or kind of job will often have its personal necessary set. Technical skills are either something youve got or you dont, but theyre always something which youre able to learn. Your resume should be formatted in an easy, professional way. Hard skills can be classified in various ways, depending upon your job title. Read through it a couple of occasions and youll probably spot three or four essential skills mentioned repeatedly throughout the document. Regardless of what your age, and however much experience that you have, you always ought to be ready to learn a new skill or technique. Becoming in a position to effectively coordinate resources, people and budgets as a project manager is among the very best technical skills you may have. They will remember that. Writing a resume is not so difficult, but it does take some time and planning. An individuals soft skill is a significant part their personal contribution to the success of an organization. Skills to Put on a Resume - Overview Instead, you need to showcase your soft skills by producing an achievement-oriented expert experience section. Its fast and simple to use. If you submit your application online, its also advisable to have a chance to attach your resume. Utilizing an online resume builder is a powerful method of quickly producing professional-looking resumes that you are able to tailor for each application. No one is totally perfect and nobody is completely bad In a resume the choice of a layout is crucial. For instance, though a software engineer may shell out most her time working on co de independently, she might want to collaborate with different programmers to effectively bring a product to market. At the exact same time, you have to do more than just use the keywords. There are a number of ways of improving your own personal skills. If you cant assist a client accomplish their requirements and goals thru negotiation, then youll have little value for their pals and family members. Then you are able to move on to processing your customers demands and goals. Key skills are work-related skills that you want to do a job. Hard skills arent skills that are really hard to learn. Required technical skills are occasionally found on the work description. More technical or computer-centric hard skills are occasionally also known as technical skills. Wherever you opt to place your skills on your resume, be certain to tailor your list of skills to the specific job. Maybe it set is completely different. Prepare a minumum of one brief story during which you demonst rated every one of the top five skills given below. Keep in mind, the majority of the distinctive skills that you set on your resume needs to be job-related skills taken from the work description and your best transferable skills. The complicated person question is really common. Many wonderful minds have taken the opportunity to consider great interview questions. If youre uncertain how to phrase your skills, or in case you would like examples of objective statements, check out some job websites for ideas. You may give the correct answer at the incorrect time and lose an offer. Technical skills are important for numerous explanations. Accurately and effectively work with numbers You might not be applying for work or pursuing a career in mathematics or statistics. however, it is probable that some simple comprehension of numeracy will be helpful. Its ideal to be ready Your most relevant examples are going to be from the past year or so. The History of Skills to Put on a Resume Refuted A hiring manager will be searching for skills which are the absolute most relevant to the job available. Since many job seekers may list skills in a different section of their resume, additionally, it is important to weave them into descriptions under every one of your prior positions. There are skills required for jobs that are not just desirable by employers but necessary so as to grow in your role or work nicely with other individuals. Whether youre searching for your very first job or your next one, you want a resume that shows employers that youre a skilled professional. So, having the ability to drive is most likely the top rated hard skill you have to have to do the job. Early in your career, you most likely dont have a strong expert track record to speak about. If you are able to, tell about a time when you werent able to create a prosperous relationship with a hard person.

Secret Solutions to Professional Resume Disclosed

Secret Solutions to Professional Resume Disclosed Ruthless Professional Resume Strategies Exploited Resume objectives are occasionally regarded as the old schooltype of resume. The resume summary will act as their sales pitch. Perhaps you introduced a new procedure to management. Notice how the example resumes are extremely specific when it has to do with technical skills. Make certain your very first impression portrays the proper expert image. In case youre looking for employment, odds are you know you call for a great resume. It wouldnt be too difficult to locate a good job in the nation if you focus on the next points. The Nuiances of Professional Resume Honestly, products and services should only be purchased when theres an actual need or robust desire in their opinion. Possessing a crystal clear and professional resume is important in the health care field. Distinct kinds of work in the food service industry require resumes with a lot of the very same skills. Atten ding job fairs is a significant notion, mainly because it is possible to satisfy a whole lot of people from various companies all at the very same time. New Step by Step Roadmap for Professional Resume For instance, it includes a skills page at which you can use icons to demonstrate your proficiency in many categories. If youre searching to customize professional, pre-formatted resumes, have a look at our totally free downloadable templates. No matter what kind of work youre searching for, the Gabriella professional resume template is a very good alternative. Employing a resume template is getting an acceptable and smspecies practice for quite a few reasons. Life, Death and Professional Resume Well, regardless of what stage youre in your career, youre likely to should understand how to make a resume for a job interview and we will explain to you how Writing a resume can be a really trying experience. Understanding how to tailor your resume will obviously provide you an adva ntage. Writing a resume for employment in the art industry can be difficult. Building a professional resume can look to be an intimidating task when youre applying for employment. Your job (while youre attempting to find a job) is to remember to fit what theyre searching for. Each time you put in an application for a new job, check your resume to make sure that it is not only targeted, but in addition current. Transportation jobs involve plenty of responsibility and your resume will want to reflect you can deal with that. What Everybody Dislikes About Professional Resume and Why Employers understand that youre young and looking to enhance your experience, so give them as much as you can that shows youre be an important employee. Resume is a sort of document employed by individuals that are seeking for employment. Get the Scoop on Professional Resume Before Youre Too Late Our resume builder is the quickest approach to create a resume that will allow you to get your fantasy job. Its possible for you to use our resume building software to produce your own from scratch. Unless youre a graphic designer looking for employment, theres no need to over think the plan of your one-pager. The 3 steps above should help you construct your professional resume very fast The New Angle On Professional Resume Just Released The applicant managed to mention important qualifications in just a few sentences. Youre going to compose a resume summary which gets far more interviews. 1 A resume summary is a brief, snappy introduction paragraph that gives a summary of your very best work. schrift of Professional Resume Ladders best resume templates are certain to provide you an advantage in your job search. On the flip side, functional resumes are typically used by fresh graduates or individuals who have less experience but want to grab the work vacancy. If youre writing a resume for a particular job, attempt to highlight any responsibilities or skills that are related to the position that youre seeking. Its not be too challenging to come across a part-time job.

My Name Got Me a Job!

My Name Got Me a Job My Name Got Me a Job Whats In A Name? Apparently, Your Future...Its the year 2018. Youve got a brand new degree, some great references, a batch of perfectly targeted resumes, and matching cover letters. Youre geared up and ready to get a job. Theres just one problem that might be holding you back the anthroponym your own parents gave you.Youre geared up and ready to get a job. Theres just one problem that might be holding you back the personenpersonenname your own parents gave you.Despite being well into the 21st century, some people still believe that you can guess everything about someone from their name enough to know their gender, class, racial ethnicity, or even their level of work competence.You may have seen the recent viral video where a man tried changing his name on his resume from Jose to Joe and received surprising results.Resume Genius took a hard look at some interesting research about characteristics of how our name can affect our job success. W e asked for HR and Career experts to share their insights and advice on this issue. Here are our top 3 findings1. White Names Are Worth MoreNumerous studies have shown that job seekers with Western or white names have a significant advantage over those with ethnic undertones on their resume.Incredibly, the study also estimates that a White name yields as many mora call backs as an additional eight years of experience.A study published by theNational Bureau of Economic Research titled Are Emily and Greg More Employable than Lakisha and Jamal? measured racial discrimination in the workplace by creating applicants with identical resumes to apply for the same role, with name being the only difference.The results showed applicants with white names received 50% more call backs for an interview compared to those with African American names. Incredibly, the study alsoestimates that a White name yields as many more call backs as an additional eight years of experience.One of our expert respo ndents is career coach and author of Careeranista Chaz Pitts Kyser. Chaz shared with us her experience dealing with hiring managers, including African American ones, who she explains are often reluctant to hire people with black-sounding names (e.g. Tawanda or Deshawn) because their names make it seem like they may be less professional.Reluctance to hire people with black-sounding names stems from negative perceptions of ethnic and African American groups as having lower standards of education or lower socio-economic status.The reality of such prejudiced thinking is why unemployment is twice as high amongst African Americans than whites.2. Easy Names Are Easily LikedResearch on the name pronunciation effect from the Journal of Experiential Social Psychology shows that easy-to-pronounce names are judged more positively than difficult-to-pronounce names. The understanding behind this is that when information is easier to process and understand, its evaluated more positively than infor mation that is difficult to process.Weve been told cases where when it came down to choosing between two equally suitable candidates, recruiters would decide on the one with a less hard-to-pronounce name simply because they did elend want to mess up the persons name. With thousands of resumes to sift through daily, its understandable for hiring managers to automatically lean towards information that they find easy to process.3. Popular Names Are More Likely To Get You HiredThe popularity of a name also has an effect on how that person is perceived. A study by Marquette University found people with common names were more likely to be hired compared to those with unique or unusual names. Separate research by Mehrabian, A. Piercy, M. (1993) also identified names that were unusual or that had unconventional spelling (e.g. Nicky as Nikki) were perceived by hiring managers as being less successful, less popular and even less cheerful than their traditional counterparts.While that may be far from the truth, our tendency to like all things familiar to us, be it brand names or real names explains why a common name like Madison may yield a more positive impression than a less conventional (elend to mention phonetically incorrect and beyond ridiculous) Maddisyne.We can take a lesson here not to go overboard with creativity in naming our children, but for those of us already living with a less than palatable name, have no fear. HR guru and author Tiffany Murray of tmurrayhrtech.com says, Recruiters and hiring managers are human and whatever natural biases they may have will come into play subconsciously. An unusual name may stick out more but a professional human resources person will not let that impact their decision.What Can I Do About It?Never let the fear of discrimination make you feel demotivated.For some ethnic minorities, there seems to always be reason to suspect that you didnt get a fair go in your application or interview. However you should never let those f ears discourage you from finding your dream job.Name discrimination is not only illegal, but there has been a huge focus on creating a more diverse workforce within corporate recruiting departments. Having diversity within candidate pools is also highly desired by hiring managers. With diversity recruiting departments becoming the norm across corporate America, recruiters are embracing this and actively seeking more diverse candidates to exceed leaderships expectations for this demand.(Nina Parr, Co-Founder of The Love Your Job Project)Have a well written resumeKeep in mind, employers are far more likely to reject a candidate over a poorly resume with spelling errors and grammar inconsistencies as opposed to name, gender or racial bias. Having a well written resume is also often overlooked in the rush to get out as many applications as fast as possible. Learn the details of what makes a perfect resume here, or, if you need to make a resume in a short period of time, you may want to consider using Resume Genius resume building software here.Be professional onlineNowadays, employers can and will look you up on social media sites to see if your profile matches your resume. That means, no selfies of you in a swimsuit as a LinkedIn or Facebook profile picture (unless youre applying to be a bikini model). According toAndrea Berkman (Founder of The Constant Professional) The best way any candidate can overcome discrimination is by having a well written resume, a professional profile as well as an online presence that showcases his/her professionalism.Change your nameResume Genius has never suggested applicants change their names when applying for jobs. We believe you shouldnt have to conceal your identity to accommodate for potential bias from hiring managers. In an ideal world where the system works, that makes perfect sense. However, while conducting our research on the topic we found that name change is not uncommon and at times even suggested by experts to help t hose who might otherwise be overlooked.For instance, longer and more ethnic sounding names are more likely to raise an eyebrow. In cases where the applicant is concerned about their name affecting the likelihood of a call back, the use of a middle name is suggested or an abbreviated form of your first name for example Jerrikeisha can be shortened to Jerri, incidentally making it gender and ethnic neutral.Some careers consultants have actually recommended candidates to legally westernize their names to increase their chances of job success. Ultimately, you need to feel completely comfortable with whatever change you decide to make and not feel pressured by setbacks in your job search.Know your rightsIts important to understand your rights as an individual if any discriminatory action is being taken against you from an employer. During job interviews, its important to know what kind of questions are acceptable or illegal.Do Not Respond to Illegal Questions AboutRaceNationalityGenderRe ligionMarital statusSexual orientationIf you believe you were rejected by a potential employer due to any of these reasons, contact your local Equal Employment Opportunity (EEO), Human Relations agency or speak to an employment lawyer. (Cynthia Calbert, Workforce 21C)This post was written by Carmen Tu, a resume expert and career adviser.

How to achieve your goals by creating an enemy

How to achieve yur goals by creating an enemyHow to achieve your goals by creating an enemyDJ Khaled, the one-man internet meme, is known for warning his tens of millions of social media followers about a group of villains he calls they.They dont want you motivated. They dont want you inspired, he blares on camera. They dont want you to win, he warns. On Ellen DeGeneress talk show, Khaled urged the host, Please, Ellen, stay away from themThe they Khaled invokes are clearly a sinister force. But who are they? Khaled offered clues when he told DeGeneres, They are the people who dont believe in you They is the person that told you, you would never have an Ellen show.Although Khaleds claims may seem outlandish, he is in fact leveraging a powerful psychological hack scapegoating. The practice of imagining a villain thats conspiring against us, scapegoating can be an effective way to motivate ourselves and change our behaviors. Of course, as history has shown, terrible things can happen w hen people act on baseless conspiracy theories. But sometimes the antidote is in the venom.Khaled isnt the first to use the technique. In The War of Art, Steven Pressfield uses an entity he calls Resistance to describe the force conspiring against creative output. Most of us have two lives, Pressfield writes. The life we live, and the unlived life within us. Between the two stands Resistance. Throughout his book Pressfield reminds readers, Resistance is always plotting against you.The author and game designer Jane McGonigal described a similar conspiracy of badeanstalt guys in her book SuperBetter. McGonigal blames villains like Mrs. Volcano and Snuff the Tragic Dragon when she loses her temper with her kids or feels self-pity.Khaled, Pressfield, and McGonigal know that they, Resistance, and the bad guys dont actually exist. For Khaled, thats the joke that powers the meme. If Khaled were to point a finger at a real group of people intent on sabotaging him, such as an ethnic group or a particular corporate entity, his scapegoating wouldnt be funny - it would be malicious.Correct causesIn order for productive scapegoating to work, its important not to assign blame to something or someone too specific if we do so, well shirk our responsibilities to change our own actions.Instead, we need to find the underlying causes of our bad behaviors, which requires asking difficult questions - especially since our intuition is frequently wrong. Maybe we dont binge on junk food or YouTube videos because of the pleasure in what were consuming, but because of deeper problems consuming us. Perhaps the true reason we allow our phones to interrupt dinner is not that were addicted to our phones, but that were addicted to work.Once weve identified our own self-defeating behaviors, the next challenge is to implement a change, which can be difficult if we think whats happening to us is beyond our control. In these situations, its easy to feel powerless and to give up. Its here that scapegoating can be used to our advantage. By directing our anger and anxieties at an invisible they, the forces working against us seem more tangible, so we feel like we have more power to fight them.Powerless if you think you areSeveral recent studies have observed a strong connection between the way we think about our ability to act and our follow-through. For example, to determine how in control people feel regarding their cravings for cigarettes, drugs, or alcohol, researchers administer a standard survey called the Craving Beliefs Questionnaire (CBQ). The assessment is modified for the participants drug of choice and presents statements like Once the craving starts I have no control over my behavior and the cravings are stronger than my willpower. How people rate these statements tells researchers how powerful or powerless they feel in the face of temptation. Lower scores reveal that subjects believe they are more in control, while higher scores correlate with people who beli eve the drugs control them.A study of methamphetamine users that appeared in the Journal of Substance Abuse Treatment in 2010 concluded that people with low CBQ scores were more likely to stay sober and that participants whose scores decreased over time - indicating that they felt more powerful as time passed - had increased odds of abstinence. A study of cigarette smokers published in 2014 found similar results The smokers most likely to fall off the wagon after quitting were the ones who believed they were powerless to resist.Though the logic isnt surprising - if we believe were powerless, we dont even try not to fail - the extent of the effect is remarkable. A 2015 study published in the Journal of Studies on Alcohol and Drugs found that individuals who believed they were powerless to fight their cravings were much more likely to drink again. In fact, beliefs of powerlessness determined whether someone would relapse after treatment as much as the level of physical dependency itself did.Embracing the enemyBesides making us feel more powerful, scapegoating can harness our instincts to resist threats to our freedom and autonomy, a phenomenon that psychologists call reactance. For example, when your boss micromanages you and tells you what to do in a patronizing way, you may feel crummy and decide to do the opposite, to stick it to the man. Scapegoating uses the power of reactance toward productive ends. If we feel that someone or something is conspiring against us, were more likely to work harder to prove them wrong.Eliciting reactance has been used successfully in public health efforts, such as the anti-smoking Truth campaign, which tried to appeal to rebellious high schoolers (who feel reactance toward just about everyone). Instead of showcasing far-off consequences like emphysema and black lungs, the Truth campaign did away with the gore and instead painted the tobacco industry as a bunch of scheming jerks. In one ad activists attempt to deliver a case marked lie detector to the headquarters of a tobacco company and are promptly kicked out. In another spot, cartoon characters interrupt smokers at a party by shouting Its a trapWe can apply the same methods to use careful scapegoating to increase our own motivation. If we imagine a force working against us, were more likely to get fired up, resist our temptations, and work harder to achieve our goals.Of course, its actually just us against ourselves. But for the times when we dont want to admit that, providing a clear enemy to rebel against - a they who doesnt want you to leave that extra cookie on the plate or get back to writing that blog post - can help us summon the tenacity we need to succeed. Even if, in reality, that they resides in each of us.Heres the gistIf used correctly, scapegoating can be a powerful tool for resisting temptation and sticking to hard goals. It can also be dangerous and backfire if used incorrectly.Assigning blame is a kind of psychological defense mec hanism that frees us from uncomfortable feelings when bad things happen out of our control, or when we dont want to accept that we are responsible for our own problems.Nothing can be done when bad things happen as a result of circumstances truly beyond our control. But were often more powerful than we think we are when it comes to our own behavior. Studies have found that people who believe that temptations control them are much more likely to give in.As long as we target the behavior at the root of the problem, creating an imaginary enemy - projecting our struggle onto the scapegoat - can make us feel more powerful and help us resist temptation or achieve our goals.This column first appeared at Nir and Far.

The Leadership Journey

The Leadership JourneyThe Leadership JourneyThe Leadership JourneyBy Diane Hudson Burns, FJSTC, CPCC, CLTMC, CPRWSES Project Manager, The Resume PlaceThe Leadership Journey chart, used by OPM (*acronyms are translated below), is the focus of a chapter in the new book, The New SES Application (publication date September 2011 by Kathryn Troutman and Diane Hudson Burns).The Leadership Journey serves as a road-map for leadership development and walks a professional through his career via leadership steps, with a goal of attaining SES. The chart covers all 28 leadership competencies required of OPM to be selected for SES. The model is used to help individuals and federal agencies build the development segment of employees succession plans.The core Leadership competencies are basic competencies for all employees (Managing Yourself) these are the cross functional competencies that are the foundation of leadership and personal management Interpersonal Skills Oral Communication Continual Lea rning Written Communication Integrity/Honesty Public Service Motivation. Research indicates that without these core competencies, success at upper levels is not possible.The Leadership Journey illustrates the customary levels of management and leadership. Associated with each level are related competencies that are critical for success at that level, and form a developmental step for the next level of management or leadership. There are key experiences at each level that are designed to reinforce the associated competencies. These key experiences eventually serve as building blocks for the ECQs.As the models steps move upward, Managing Yourself, moves to Managing Projects (equivalent to GS 5-11 positions). Employees in this stage of their careers build project management skill sets and five additional leadership competencies in Team Building Customer Service Technical Credibility Accountability Influencing/Negotiating.At the next level, Managing People (GS 11-13 equivalent), employe es gain an additional five leadership competencies attributed to the ECQs Human Capital Management Leveraging Diversity Conflict Management Developing Others Problem Solving.From this level, employees move into mora senior leadership and management roles (Managing Programs / GS 14-15 equivalent) focusing on six additional leadership competencies Technology Management Financial Management Creativity Innovation Partnering Political Savvy Flexibility. At this stage, most career professionals have some 12 to 20 years of experience.Combining all of the previous 22 leadership competences with six more External Awareness Vision Strategic Thinking Entrepreneurship Resilience Decisiveness, professionals who have climbed the steps of the Leadership Journey are ready for SES and Leading Organizations.To attain SES, candidates must submit an SES level resume and Executive Core Qualifications for review by the Qualifications Review Board, which determines if candidates meet the requirements for SES and demonstrate the 28 requirements leadership competencies to Lead Organizations.As an employee moves through the steps of the Leadership Journey combined with a succession plan that may include training, certifications, education, and specialized detail assignments to gain all 28 leadership competencies, the individuals resume will evolve as it begins to express stronger leadership and management skills. The accomplishments (as opposed to duties) selected for an individuals resume seeking more senior level positions, will demonstrate leadership and senior management roles, focusing on managing people, projects, and programs. As the employee gains more leadership skills, the resume will need to convey more focused and stronger accomplishments.If you would like to learn more about the Leadership Journey and development of the SES five-page resume and traditional ECQ resume package, please join us in Baltimore on September 8 and 9, 2011 for the SES / ECQ development workshop. T he book, The New SES Application is the base curriculum. You will experience hands-on, interactive training with four instructors during two days, with a goal of completing several ECQs and the five-page SES resume.* OPM = Office of Personnel ManagementSES = Senior Executive ServiceECQ = Executive Core QualificationsFind out more about our SES Application Writing Workshop.Order The New SES Application book today