Are You A Confident Leader?

Have you ever found yourself before going into a presentation, a speaking gig or perhaps a meeting at work where you knew you were less than confident?
I know I have.
There is a saying that we should ‘fake it till we make it’ though I don’t subscribe to that approach. Basically because I think if you ‘fake it’, it usually shows – in your lack of confidence.
And what’s worse is that can translate into people having a lack of trust in you and impact future opportunities you might have for working with someone or being asked back for a future meeting.So in other words it impacts your personal brand and reputation as a leader.
That is why I was thrilled to see a new book released recently by someone whose expertise I value – it’s called ‘The Confident Leader: How the Most Successful People Go from Effective to Exceptional’ and the author is Larina Kase who is a New York Times best selling author.
I had the opportunity last week to speak to Larina for a project I am working on and she generously offered to answer some questions I had for her about becoming a confident leader which I hope you will find of value.
Krishna: Why is our personal confidence as a leader is important in relation to business development and growth?
Larina: Whether you own a business of 1 (you) or 1,000, you are the leader – of yourself, your business, your life. As a leader, your confidence will determine what you achieve as well as how others respond to you and your business.
We know from recent research that self-esteem and confidence are some of the most important predictors of career success and income, and that it doesn’t go the other way around–we can’t wait until we having a thriving business and hope that it increases our confidence. Instead, if we develop confidence, we’re more likely to have a thriving business.

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The Final Chapter

At the beginning of the month, I wrote a post that posited the idea that the the daily newspaper industry had entered its final chapter, that the beginning of the end had arrived, and that the only drama that remained was which characters would survive the decimation of the next few years and make it to the epilogue. The news from the industry this week confirms that this final chapter is indeed underway.
Among the highlights of the week, the 100 year-old Christian Science Monitor announced that it is ceasing its daily print operations in light of 40 years of declining circulation. Gannett announced that it is slahing another 10% of its workforce, with the brunt of the layoffs occurring at smaller community newspapers. The L.A. Times also announced that it, too, is slashing another 10% of its newsroom staff, further eroding an already delapidated product. And, worst of all, newspaper circulation across the U.S. fell by nearly 5% during the 6 months ended September 30th.
The narrative may take another few years to play out, but there is no doubt that the final chapter has begun.
Article by Toby Dayton and courtesy of Diggings, a blog about recruitment advertising, media, publishing, HR, work, & technology, among other things.

Making a Business Case for Twitter

I’m at the Social Media Strategies Conference in San Francisco. Yesterday Twitter was mentioned often so I offered to present some business cases for using it. You can watch the conference being live streamed.
Twitter has become a valuable tool for business use. There are so many opportunities to leverage it’s capabilities in a way that is relevant & provides value.

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Job Search Success: A Matter of Luck? – Part 1

“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times…it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us….” So begins Charles Dickens in “A Tale of Two Cities,” set during the tumultuous French Revolution. Some would say we are experiencing similarly tumultuous times with the economy in disarray and job seekers attributing their chances of job search success to luck.
But what is job search luck after all? Is it really random? Certainly being in the right place at the right time matters; however, you do have to be out there networking (off line and online) and making contact in the “right places” to get noticed. There are other elements important to job search luck. The first element of L-U-C-K follows; subsequent posts will cover three more.

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How Well Branded Are You?

Article provided by Brand-Yourself.com
How well branded are you? One way to find out is to put metrics in place – something you can measure your brand against.
The easiest way to start analyzing your personal brand is through Google.
First, do a Google search for a leader in your field. Try searching for their name, plus:
[First Last] +blog
[First Last] +forum
[First Last] +article
[First Last] +author
This will give you an idea of their online brand: what they’re doing, and where they’re doing it.
Next, do same thing for your name. This allows you to compare yourself to them to see how well you’re doing. Where are they showing up that you aren’t? What kind of content are they post?

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Waiting Room

As I write this, I am waiting on my interviewer. It’s for a Junior Consultant position in an Atlanta-based management consultancy firm. It was last Wednesday when I got the call. Was happy to know that I had made the firm¬¥s callback list. After I hung up, I went over my most ingenious remarks of the first interview and congratulated myself. But back to reality. The appointment was at 12.00 and it is now 12.15. Where the hell is Mr. Clarke?
I am sitting in a beautifully decorated meeting room. By the window of the impressive modern building, overlooking the busiest part of town, I see the books that made the founders of the firm famous for their innovative approach to strategy execution. I do not see the latest title by the authors, the one I tried to find at my local bookshop and had been ordered but not delivered yet. No use worrying about it now.
Through half-open sliding doors I see a second meeting room, this one slightly more informal, with a writing board, hanging maps and several grey leather chairs. I imagine they use this one for internal meetings, while they meet with clients in this one.
On the glass table in front of me is a plate full of candy and sweets. They look great. Soft, would not be hard to chew and could be swallowed fast. Gosh I’m hungry. I overslept and had to skip breakfast. Had a mint though. A sophisticated telephone for conference calling is also at the table. It is aerodynamic and shaped like a boomerang. What were those designers thinking?

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Job Hunter or Farmer?

We humans have been farming for about 12,000 years, which accounts for only 0.5% of our time on earth as a species, according to an article on the University of Reading web site.
That means, for most of our ancestors — 99.5% of them — hunting and gathering was how they got food.
Now. Wouldn’t you agree that farming is a more reliable way to feed your family than hunting, especially if the latter involves trying to bag a mastodon?
All of which has something very important to do with your career.
It’s this: Almost everyone looking for work thinks of themselves as a job hunter. (You, too?)
Most people hunt for employers and gather job leads, day in and day out.
That’s all they know. That’s how they’ve always done it. Maybe for 99.5% of their working history.

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Scams Targeting Job Seekers

When looking for your next great job, unfortunately you need to be aware that there are people who are looking to take advantage of you. Although the story they tell will change, a scam falls into one of two basic categories: 1. An attempt to get you to pay money; 2. An attempt to steal your identity.
How do they attempt to get you to pay money? Someone may pose as a recruiter stating he/she has a great employer with a high paying job, and all you need to do is pay a placement fee. Another variation of this tactic is to offer you “exclusive” job leads – leads that you can’t find elsewhere, and you can’t see until you pay a fee. Or there are “Work at Home” jobs where you are required to pay a fee for the initial packet of materials.
A good rule of thumb: NEVER pay for a job, or a lead to a job. Read the last sentence again, and let the word “never” sink into your head. No matter what the story is, or how convincing the person is, NEVER pay money. If you follow this rule of thumb, you will never get taken by this type of scam.
How do they attempt to steal your identity? You could receive a job offer, without ever meeting anyone face to face. Does this sound ridiculous? It should, but it won’t when they tell you their story – because they’ll make it sound real. The story changes every time, but usually is something like this: a major company outside of the US needs to transfer money into the US, or needs to deposit money from US sales, and will pay you a (a specified amount, or a percentage of the transaction) to put the money into your bank account. They will tell you this is a great job that pays great money, and you only have to work a few hours each week.
A good rule of thumb: NEVER give your credit card number(s), social security number, bank account number(s), or date of birth to any prospective employer without first meeting with the employer face to face. Resist the pressure to “act now” for a great opportunity that will have to go to someone else – let someone else get their identity stolen. If the employer does not have a local representative to meet with you in a face to face interview, you’ll only need to do a little research to find this great opportunity is nothing more than a scam.
Protect Yourself: When something sounds too good to be true you can research companies through the Better Business Bureau, the Federal Trade Commission. You can find more detailed information on crimes committed via the internet and how to avoid them, from the US Government’s Internet Crime Complaint Center.
This is a guest post by GadBall. It is a free service to job seekers brought to you by Data Frenzy – the world’s largest job distribution company. This site utilizes the advanced technologies, job board partnerships and employer relationships to provide a comprehensive free resume distribution site.
Article courtesy of the Recruiting Blogswap, a content exchange service sponsored by CollegeRecruiter.com, a leading site for college students looking for internships and recent graduates seeking entry-level jobs and other career opportunities.

I am not Joe the Plumber

As we enter the final days before the Tuesday, November 4th elections, I am flabbergasted at how brainwashed the voting public has become. Case in point: Joe the Plumber. Now I realize that stories about real people or situations make arguments more persuasive. That’s why I try to work in as many real-life examples into my recruiting webinars and other presentations as possible. But the stories should make sense, shouldn’t they? And if they don’t make sense, then shouldn’t the story teller suffer for failing to respect their audience?
The latest example is the use by the McCain campaign of Joe (the Plumber) Wurzelbacher, the plumber who reportedly isn’t licensed as a plumber, has unpaid back taxes, and thinks that it is un-American to “spread the wealth.” Give me a break. Spreading the wealth has always been part of the American way, as it is in every other nation and community. Humans and many animals “spread the wealth” in every society because doing so makes us all better off. We “spread the wealth” when we pay taxes to fund schools, roads, police, fire, military, and every other function of government. We “spread the wealth” when we use governmental services. We “spread the wealth” in our places of work as some days we are more productive than those around us and other days they are more productive than are we. We “spread the wealth” in our families, as seen in families where one spouse is the primary moneymaker while the other primarily takes care of raising the kids.

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Internships in Las Vegas

This week I’ve had a great time visiting sunny Las Vegas. Although I’m out here partially for business ( About.com conference), I’ve also been lucky enough to take my first trip to the Grand Canyon as well as take in a show at the Las Vegas Hilton.
While in Vegas I thought I’d scout out some internship programs and share them with my readers. Continue reading about internships in Vegas …
Article by, Penny Loretto, a career counselor at a small liberal arts college in upstate New York, has her own private career counseling practice, Career Choice, and is About.com’s Guide to Internships.