Month: November 2014

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Horrible Bosses: Not Just a Movie

Interview Warning Signs

Job interviews can be a very stressful experience. When you are being interviewed, you feel tested and like you’re being inspected through a magnifying glass. However, the candidates aren’t the only ones being scrutinized: the interviewer himself is also under your examination. While he assesses your compatibility for the position and the organization, you’re studying his compatibility as a potential boss.

How can you tell whether the person interviewing you will be a good boss? Here are the interview warning signs that will tell you the type of boss whom you don’t want to work for.

Interview Delivery Style

  • Introduction – Did he shake your hand? Or maybe you held your hand for a shake and he stayed seated while shaking hands? This is a sign of disrespect. Right from the beginning, he is showing you that he does not value you.
  • Focus & Attention – Is he attentive and present in the interview? Or is he distracted, interrupted by his PA, making calls, and reading emails during the interview? This is another sign of disrespect. The interviewer is supposed to be looking for the best employee for himself and the company.  A lot is at stake in this situation, and he can’t be bothered to take a break to concentrate on that? A clear warning sign! If this is how he acts during the interview, what will happen if you actually work for him? You need someone who gives you his undivided attention.
  • Interpersonal Communication

    • Eye Contact – Did he make eye contact during the interview? Or was he looking at your resume/CV, his computer, and off to the side the entire time? This says something about his interpersonal communication skills. This aspect does not necessarily mean he’s a bad person to work for, but it does suggest that you may have difficulties communicating while working together.
    • Facial Expressions – Did he smile when he introduced himself and throughout the interview? Or did he look solemn and stern? A lack of a smile could indicate that he is a very serious person, maybe even severe. The interviewer has the job of representing the company. His objective is to make people want to work for him and/or his company, so part of his job is to show the interviewee what work life will be like if he gets the job. A smile is so basic.
  • Patience -Did he let you fully answer questions after asking them? Or did he constantly interrupt you in the middle of a sentence? This could be an indicator of someone who is not willing to let his employees be creative, and someone who is overly controlling. Be aware of interviewers like this.

Interview Content

  • Introduction – Did he introduce himself? Name, position, vision, etc.  It may sound very basic, but sometimes it is overlooked. An interviewer’s duty is to introduce himself. If he didn’t, it may imply that it wasn’t important enough for him. If this person was speaking with a potential client, you can be sure that and introduction would be important, so how can he forget it when interviewing a potential employee?
  • Professional vs. Personal – Were all of the questions purely professional? Or did he take the time to get to know about you as a person? In an interview, it is obvious that you will be asked about your professional experience and knowledge. However, an interview is also meant to get to know the person behind the profession, to see if his personality will mesh with the company climate and mentality. An interviewer who doesn’t ask a few personal questions to get to know the person in front of him is a warning sign.
  • Appropriate Questions – Were the questions all appropriate? Or did the interviewer ask questions that got too personal, such as asking about marital status and age? While some personal questions, such as your hobbies and interests, are appropriate, some questions cross the line. If you feel uncomfortable during the interview, chances are you’ll also feel uncomfortable if you take the job.

After you finished the interview, what is the process going forward?

  • Did he ask you if you had any questions at the end? Or did he just rush to finish the interview? A good employer will want to give you as much information as possible. If he’s hurrying you along, he clearly does not want you to ask questions.
  • How long did he speak, and how long did you speak? You as an interviewee need to speak more than the interviewer did. The interview is the process by which a potential employer gets to know you. If he talked too much about himself, this is probably not a good fit for you.
  • Pay attention to the order of the interviewer questions. For example: if one of the firsts questions he asks is about how many hours you worked per day at your last job, rather than what you did during those hours, you can tell that he is just looking for someone to give as many hours as possible. The order of the questions can indicate his priorities and needs.

Take these warning signs into account before your next interview. Regardless of whether or not you feel a job is a good fit for you, an interviewer should not be trying to make you uncomfortable. If you get a bad vibe from the interviewer, chances are it’s not a good fit for you. Move on, and find the right employer and company for you.

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Charisma: How to Match Your Verbal and Non-Verbal Messages

If you look up “charisma” in the dictionary, the definition will say something along the lines of: “a person with personal charm, persuasive and possessing high interpersonal skills.”  Clearly, charisma is a quality that one should want to possess, particularly in the communications field.

But how can we truly become more charismatic?

There are many qualities that can make a person charismatic. On a practical level, however, a person is thought to be charismatic when his verbal messages and his non-verbal messages are consistent.  This means that your words and your body language have to correspond with one another, and have to work together to create a stronger impact.  It may seem simple, but how exactly do you effectively do this?

5 tips for achieving correspondence between verbal and non-verbal messages:

  • Voice and tone – 38% of our first impressions are based on our ability to use our voice correctly.  What is considered the “proper” use of your voice?  Simply put, you should use a moderate and changeable variation of: volume (high/low), pace (quick/slow) and style (decisive/authoritative/soft/containing).
  • Facial expressions – it’s very difficult to listen with interest and gain a connection with someone who has an expressionless face.  We must ensure that we use varied facial gestures according to message we’re trying to convey and of course, we can’t forget to smile.  As a rule, people have an easier time connecting to and having a positive perception of people who smile at them.
  • Eye contact – in order to radiate credibility, honesty and intimacy with the person standing before us, we must ensure to make eye contact with all the people in the audience.  Don’t stay fixated on one person for too long though; make sure you are making eye contact with the entire audience.  Additionally, try not to look at your notes or presentation too much.  Keep engaging the audience to make sure not to lose them.
  • Shoulders – studies have shown that something that radiates high self-esteem is the shoulders.  That is, erect and straight shoulders send a message that a person can be counted on; strong shoulders give the impression that a person believes in himself. This, in turn, makes it easier to believe in this person and in his message.
  • Use of attention grabbers – in order for our message to be memorable and to create an experience as a derivative of the interaction with us, we must spice up our content with concrete examples, personal experiences, anecdotes, surprising data from recent studies, videos etc. As much as we might want our presentation to stand on its own, using extras can really help our message stick with the audience.

Charisma can be something that comes naturally to people, but it can also be taught and learned very easily through these simple steps. If you want others to be excited about what you’re saying, you need to be excited while saying it. By being passionate and energetic, your message will grab hold of an audience and make them feel the same way you do.

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Enhancing Your Influence

Every person is looking for a way to maximize his input, whether it’s in a big or small way.

One of these ways is becoming an asset to the big decision-makers at a company.

How can you be sure that your suggestions are helpful and not hindering? CLICK HERE to take a look at our infographic on Enhancing Your Influence and learn more!

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Conscripting Innovation

By, Gur Braslavi and Stephen Fox

We often associate great intellectual breakthroughs with a single eureka moment of a single inventor, such as Newton’s apple. The reality, though, is that innovation is the moment when many smaller ideas are pulled together to deliver a unified solution to a specific problem. Those who are skilled enough to accomplish this alone come around once in a lifetime. What about the manager who needs to innovate within his own company? There must be a better solution than waiting to hire the next Albert Einstein to the R&D department. Rather, managers must learn to harness the existing powers of their organizations in order to find solutions faster and more reliably. The answer is conscripting innovation.

What exactly does it mean to conscript innovation? The word “conscript” is typically a military term, meaning to be drafted or compelled into service. So to conscript innovation means to be drawn to be innovative, drafted into being creative.

The challenge is not for us to provide the solutions to our own problems, but rather to conscript a wide spectrum of talents together in order to innovate. Introducing new lines of thought and skills into the solution process allows us to break free from the internalized boundaries we have set for ourselves and find solutions that may otherwise have been overlooked. The problem is how to entice others to join you on your quest for the next great idea that will change your business, or maybe even your entire industry.

Conscripting innovation is a three-part process that will allow you to create an ideal environment to accomplish your goals, including focusing on a specific problem, fostering an environment for success, and making a problem fun to work on.

Part 1: The first step towards conscripting innovation requires managers to have their employees focus on a single objective and direct certain people to solve a single problem. Managers must take complicated ideas and strip them down into a simpler goal that others will be easily understood. With new perspective come new solutions. Take a look at the aircraft company, Boeing, during the early 1990s; individual departments within the company lacked coordination with each other, which lead to a lot of wasted time, resources, and money. Rather than implement changes from the top down, management decided to tackle this problem by opening the lines of communication between the departments and developing “accelerated improvement retreats” for the top employees in each group. When working together, they found that many of their processes overlapped, allowing the company to cut down significantly on the overall manufacturing costs.[1] The solutions did not come from around the boardroom table, but rather used the perspective of engineers, assembly workers, warehouse managers and pilots to find innovative solutions to the company’s process of manufacturing planes.

Part 2: The second step in conscripting innovation is to foster a creative, yet productive work environment. In general, this must be done through a long process of creating a supportive company culture. While creating “thinking spaces” with bean bag chairs and foosball tables can help, the way innovative ideas are treated by upper level management is what will decide whether or not employees are willing to put their necks out on the line. The way to achieve it is to develop a culture of innovation that does not punish employees for taking calculated risks, even if they fail. HP Software has implemented an impressive program called the “innovation stream” in order to overcome this problem. The stream flows throughout the organization, asking for input from all departments and levels, similar to the way Boeing had done; however, the difference is in the encouragement that HP gives their employees. They can receive points for submitting ideas, critiquing the ideas of others, and lending their expertise to design teams for the best ideas. These points can be used to purchase days off and other benefits. More importantly though, employees who are serious about working on their innovations are given time each week to work in development teams. HP has found that when employees are allowed to take the lead on their own ideas, it allows the large company to develop the entrepreneurial spirit that used to be reserved for smaller, start-up companies. This culture of innovation gives employees the courage to put forth their ideas and the support to turn them into products that will help HP continue to grow.[2]

Part 3: The third step of conscripting innovation says that the assignments employees are working on must be fun and enjoyable. Studies have found that people are far more willing to expend their time, energy and resources on tasks that they enjoy. An example of this can be seen in the discovery of supernova, where each year more professional and amateur astronomers search larger portions of the sky for these rare phenomena. The result has been an exponential increase in the discovery rate of supernova and many more associated breakthroughs in the astronomy community.[3]

In finding an innovative solution to your own problem, the dilemma becomes how to conscript others to work together. This requires focus on the question at hand, a culture that promotes innovation, and most of all, a fun and enticing process that attracts others to actually want to invest their time. You are not trying to bring the solution to others, nor are you assuming to know what the solution may be, nor are you saying there is even a viable solution. What you can do is bring together the collective knowledge necessary to find an innovative solution. So what is the focus of your company: on finding the solution to your problems or learning how to conscript others to innovate with you?

[1] “Can Boeing Fly High Again?” Http://www.maths.tcd.ie/~nora/FT351-3/CS.pdf. N.p., n.d. Web. 10 Nov. 2012.
[2] Gvirtsman, Ahi. “HP Innovation Stream.” Tel Aviv, Israel. 13 Nov. 2012. Lecture.
[3] http://www.universetoday.com/26495/a-supernova-story/

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Nailing Your Elevator Pitch

You have a great idea for a start-up, but are having trouble finding potential investors.  You’re at your regular job, coming back from lunch.  You get into the elevator, push the button for your floor, and all of the sudden, the CEO of Amazon steps inside.  You have until the elevator reaches the top floor to pitch your idea to him.  What do you say to him?  This is what we call an “elevator pitch.”

With the growing popularity of door-to-door sales in 1960’s America, something became clear: only a small number of salesmen were successful and were able to flourish in their businesses.  Most agents were unable to turn a profit and abandoned the business quickly.

After examining this phenomenon, it was discovered that the ability to speak consecutively for 30 seconds is what predicted the success of sale.  If a salesman was interrupted within the first 30 seconds of his pitch, he hardly ever made a sale.  This data served as the basis for which the U.S. developed a tool called “the elevator pitch.”

There are a few guidelines in order to create an effective elevator pitch. Your goal is not to convince the other party, but rather to ensure another meeting that can help you move forward with your project/business. Here are 4 things easy things to remember:

  • The Teaser – You have no doubt heard this term before.  A teaser is the thing that initially stimulates the listener and grabs his attention.  You want to say anything that will make him look up and focus on you.  This is your opportunity to come off as interesting, creative, and attractive.  The teaser should make you come across as knowledgeable as well as make your message clear.
  • The Subject – What is your message? What exactly is it that you want your audience to understand?  This is of crucial importance.  Many times, people tend to skip or forget to introduce the subject they are talking about.  When the 30 seconds are up, the person with whom you’re speaking must clearly know what you want from him.  You want him to invest in your idea, not walk away confused.
  • The Hook – What’s in it for him? In a world of profit and loss, we’re all motivated by personal gain and benefit.  You need to make whatever your idea is relevant to the person to whom you’re pitching it.  Think about why he might profit from your idea.  Will your idea bring him money?  Help his company?  Help a worthy cause important to him?  Don’t only make your pitch about you; you need to bring the other party into the idea.
  • The You – Why you?  Why should he listen to you?  You should emphasize your uniqueness and your added value compared to others.  You may have presented a wonderful idea in an innovative, effective way, but he may have heard it all before, or he may just take your idea and run with it on his own.  Talk about why you are crucial to the success of your idea, and what special things only you can bring.  After all, it’s your idea.

So next time you run into the CEO of Amazon, or someone else who can help you get ahead, don’t miss out on the opportunity.  Follow these easy steps and just launch into your elevator pitch. Make him pull up his calendar and schedule your next meeting right before he exits the elevator.

Want to know if your elevator pitch is up to par? Check out HowDidIDo, the only platform that allows you to upload your content and get feedback from experts!

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Information vs. Knowledge

We live in a world that is surrounded by a massive influx of information that is easily available. If you want to find out more about a subject, all you have to do is go to a computer or smart phone and type it in. It’s that simple. We, literally, have a wealth of information available at our fingertips, whenever and wherever we want it.

Often times, the terms “Information” and “Knowledge” are used interchangeably, and people do not give much more thought on the subject. However, in your daily interactions (in the office, at home, etc.), it is extremely important to think about the distinction between the two. What really is the difference?
We have created a short Prezi presentation to show you which of the two is more important when delivering your message, and how to make your audience listen to you. CLICK HERE to take a look!

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Make Your Email Stand Out

It’s hard to imagine what our lives would be like without Ray Tomlinson.

While this name may not ring any bells, we can assure you that you are very familiar with Ray Tomlinson’s work. Ray Tomlinson is the programmer who invented electronic mail, more commonly known today as email.

Email is one of the most, if not the most, used tools today. We send and receive dozens of emails every day. It has transformed into our main means of communication, through which we are able to transmit our messages within our entire workforce.

It’s clear that email has a huge influence in our daily lives, but not everyone knows the proper rules for sending a good email. With our help, your mail won’t be lost in your addressee’s inbox. Instead, it will attract his attention so that he will read it and respond to it. In addition, these rules will help you transmit your message in a much more effective way and will help you avoid commonly made mistakes.

1. Subject line – If we want our email to take precedence over all other mail received, the subject line must attract the addressee. That is, the content must be useful or beneficial to the addressee– why is it worth his while? For example, if you send your boss a weekly report, instead of just writing “Weekly Report” in the subject line, try to give it a more interesting and captivating title. Just adding a few words regarding subjects that are important to your boss could do the trick. It could be” “Weekly Report – Changes in Income in the Asian Sector.” Note that you are giving the report a new title that will work well for chain messages. And take note of the most important rule: email should never be sent without a subject line.

2. Short and to the point – In order to make the content of your mail easy for the addressee to understand, the main subjects should be divided into individual points. Key words in each sentence should be emphasized. When the addressee scans the mail, he should be able to quickly understand its subject and the important points you are trying to get across.

3. Personal touch – It is very important to give your mail a personal touch (within reason, of course). Always open your letter with the addressee’s name, some greeting or words of interest in his welfare, and a closing note with a signature (in addition to your permanent business signature). The more generic your mail, the less significance it has. The content of the mail will affect not only the message, but also the writer. If you write, “Forward the results” instead of “I would appreciate receiving the results,” the addressee’s perception of you is different. You should still keep in mind your existing relationship and situation with the addressee. The question now arises of what to do when you are sending this mail to more than one person. How do you still keep the letter personal? There are two possibilities:

  1. Address everyone at the beginning of the letter: “Dear Noa, Dani, Ron, and Shira.” When a person sees himself addressed directly at the beginning of the email, he will automatically give the letter his attention.
  2. Individually send an email to each of the addressees. Even though this will take more time, the possibilities of receiving a response are higher. When there are a large number of addressees, the tendency is not to reply, because each person is sure that the others will reply or they prefer to know what others will say before they give their opinions. It’s always a good idea invest a little more time and send personal mail to each of the addressees.

4. Punctuation – There are an unlimited number of transactions that are worth millions of dollars, but have failed simply because the email was not correctly understood. Make sure to always use correct punctuation marks and to use them in the right places. In addition, try not to over-punctuate as well, such as exaggerated use of exclamation points or ellipses (dot-dot-dot). People who punctuate properly come across as more intelligent.

Let’s eat grandpa.

vs.

Let’s eat, grandpa.

Correct punctuation can save a person’s life.

5. Moving forward – What does the addressee have to do after reading the mail? Why did he receive it? Was it purely an informational email, or were you asking for his opinion? What you want from the addressee must be emphasized in the body of the letter. The addressee cannot be left wondering why this email was sent to his inbox. Be clear as to what your intentions are. In addition, if you want the addressee to send you a confirmation that he received your email, ask him directly to reply. If your request is unclear, you can’t expect the addressee to read your mind. If several people have been sent the same message, mention them by name in the body of the mail and request of each of them, by name, to reply.

6. Double check – One of the advantages of email over face-to-face conversation is the possibility of proofreading your words before sending it. If we are speaking to someone and say the wrong thing, it is extremely difficult, if not impossible, to turn back the wheel. With email, we can check the content of the letter, find grammatical or spelling errors, read the letter out loud, and check that the letter was sent. Although this is a relatively basic action, there are many people who do not check their letters before sending them. Devote a few more seconds to this – it’s worth it!

Every day, about 190 billion letters are sent by electronic mail around the world. Research has shown that this figure will grow even larger with time. Your mail, your message, is in constant competition with other mail. So, in order to successfully reach your goals and complete your work, it’s worth using this very powerful tool in the best possible way.

And another little tip… if you’ve sent two emails and the point still isn’t clear? Forget about the email. Pick up the telephone and talk about it.