Tag: Better Results

3 Steps To Your #Goal Of Giving A Great Job Interview

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An Interview Can Bring You Closer To Your Goal – Picture Credit Pexels Dot Com

It’s that time of year. The time when you start thinking about your next goal.

Maybe your heart is set on getting a new job, or starting a college course. Assuming your initial application has been successful and you have been chosen for interview the tricky part is ahead. 30 minutes marketing yourself to someone else.

So, your interview clothes are pressed.

Your shoes are clean.

You’ve practised smiling and shaking hands at the same time.

What’s your next step toward your goal?

How Do You Market Yourself?

Just recently I helped some interviewees practice their self-marketing skills. The candidates turned up looking like they wanted to impress (professionally dressed, heads up, smiling).

They were prepared, as they knew how the interview helped them toward their ultimate goal.

Each candidate brought a different set of skills and experiences to their interview too. They told their stories well. The ability to respond thoughtfully to three basic questions really let some interviewees shine

Preparing Your Answers

Here are the questions. What answers would you give? Feel free to Leave A Reply, Like and Share

First, What Attracted You To Apply For This Job / Course?

This open question allows you to start showing the interviewer why they should consider you an ideal fit for their opportunity.

You can use examples which show the strengths you have which make you perfectly suited to be a good performer if you join the organisation quite quickly and a great one in the longer term.

When you are presenting your examples use the STAR method to explain your Situation the Task you tackled, the Action you took and the great Results you produced. Extra credit if you describe the obstacles you overcame and the lessons you learned.

2. What Qualities Do You Bring To The Team?

More often than not you will be involved with other people in a business-as-usual or project team. How have you worked with others to solve problems? What skills do you bring to a team? If you have led a team, how have you motivated others? Use the STAR process to tell your story.

3. What Is The First Thing You Do When Your Plans Don’t Work Out?

Here’s your chance to shine. Everyone knows that plans don’t always work out. If you have a good example of how you handled a problem which came up out of the blue, use it. It is important to spotlight what you did in the situation though, even if others were involved. The interviewer will want to know about the difference you made to the end result.

Your Preparation, Evidence And Answers Matter

If you have thoughtful answers to these questions (and you tell your story well) you will stand out in the interviewers mind. If she or he has seen five or six candidates you want to be the first person they think about when they imagine selecting a new team member. Good preparation and presentation will help you stand out.

What Is Your Next Move? 

So, good luck if you are a starting out, or moving on in your career. Use the comment section to say how you prepare for interviews where you are marketing yourself to strangers. You can be sure others will appreciate what you have to say.

Finally, thanks for reading. Feel free to Like and Share these ideas if you found them helpful.

 

 

 

 

 

How Does Focusing On #Love Help You Tackle Your #Goals ?

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A Heart Labelled Lovee

How Much Do You Love What You Do? Image From Pexels.Com

What would it feel like if you loved how you spent your day?

Imagine if you spent every waking moment using your natural skills to create exciting results. How happy would you and your clients be at the end of the week?

Also, think about the joy you would have if your non-work time was spent with people who were supportive, optimistic and focused on the goal of exchanging their experience with others to improve products and processes.

Like doesn’t have to be a grind.

But Life Is Hard Work!

For some people, especially those taking action to achieve their goals, life is enjoyable. They are not stuck accepting an situation they don’t love. They are thinking and acting differently and achieving different and better results.

Why?

Because they want to love what they do.

So I Can Just Decide To Love What I Do?

Yes. Maybe your occupation isn’t where you find satisfaction. Love might be linked to your family life, or volunteering. Having something uplifting makes life much more enjoyable.

These and similar themes are central to Napoleon Hill’s ‘Think And Grow Rich’, life and leadership guide which was published 80 years ago this year.

To paraphrase from Hill’s 1937 publication:

We have become what we are because of our dominating thoughts and desires.

So if we keep thinking of ourselves as stuck in a rut, isolated and powerless we reduce our chances of moving forward, connecting to a support system and loving our situation.

What’s Your Next Step?

So, I’m putting this post out to encourage people feeling stuck in a rut. Invest some time in writing down what your ideal situation will be in 12 month’s time. Commit to taking action each week to move toward your goal. Share your success story with one other person so they get motivated to change too.

Are you ready to pay attention to your needs? What initial step will you take toward your goal this month? How will that step help you start loving what you do? Leave a reply and have your say.

If you are in need of some support you can always download a free copy of my ABC guide via the Members Access page. Don’t forget to Like, Share and Comment on the post through social media so you start connecting to other goal-driven people too.

Finally, however you spend it, have a brilliant February.

Roger

3 Steps Towards More Success With Your #Goals And #Wellbeing

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Congratulations if you have started a new project recently. The run up to Christmas is the time of year when people take a deep breath and say ‘Yes!’ to a University course, an Evening Class, or other life-changing challenge.

That bold investment of time, money and optimism involves:

  • Paying regular attention to your new goal
  • Setting boundaries so your time is well spent and you connect to supportive people
  • Caring about the quality of your outputs as you reach your next milestone

What About People Who Don’t Have New Goals?

It is OK not to pursue new goals. Sometimes caring for others and looking after yourself is enough. Although, having said that, there is always time for goal setting unless everything is perfect in the key areas of life which are important to most of us.

What Are The 3 Steps?

The 3 steps to greater well-being involve Goal-Setting, Taking Action, Connecting to Others who want to improve their situation concerning:

  • Fun
  • Health
  • Money
  • Relationships
  • Work

The next time you are relaxing over a cup of coffee, take the time to do a quick exercise on paper. Using the five headings above decide what score you give yourself out of 10 in each area.

Does one area stand out in the 1 to 5 range? How would it feel to set a goal and start improving that area?

What would you feel like in six months, to be surrounded by other happy, successful people who are feeling 8 out of 10 about life, just like you?

What Is Your Next Action?

If you want to take your first step toward fulfilment and well-being take a look at the short video. It highlights 3 key ideas central to getting started on tackling your goals.

Remember, there are more free resources in the Members’ Area which you can access too. Don’t forget to Like and Share this post to help others get started on their way to a more fulfilling life.

Good Luck!

Goals 2014: When your manager says your work must improve which 3 steps should you take?

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Is Your Performance Going Up Or Down This Year? (Image under creative common licence from Morguefile.com)

Is Your Performance Going Up Or Down This Year? (Image under creative common licence from Morguefile.com)

This year, like every year, thousands of civil servants made the Government’s presentation of the Budget seem effortless.  Behind the scenes collaborations, across the various departments, over many weeks came together smoothly yesterday.  Meaning that as the Chancellor sat down, a comprehensive suite of Budget publications appeared online .

How will some of those civil servants feel, should they now learn that they ‘must improve’ their performance to meet their work objectives?  It is a knock to one’s self-confidence to be judged in that way by a line manager.  More so if that outcome bucks the trend of years of evidence-based good performance.

Guidance on ranking staff for appraisal purposes

This year a ‘must improve’ judgement will flow from the strict application of guidance in the new Civil Service Appraisal system.  The system is one part of Civil Service Reform (whose goal is delivering better services for less money).

The guidance – available to managers across different Departments, Directorates and teams – is to use the sector-wide appraisal system to determine who has had a successful year.  The system seems to mean that appraisal markings can be distributed along a curve.  On that curve approximately:

  • 20 % of staff in a grade will have exceeded their objectives
  • 70 % will have achieved expected outcomes
  • 10% must improve

One appraisal system but two perspectives on how it works

The dialogue around performance management is led by the Head of the Civil Service, Sir Bob Kerslake.  He has blogged about the new performance management system, which he believes, reflects consistency across the organisation and looks at what civil servants achieve and how they achieve it.

Many Senior Civil Service (SCS) staff and their junior colleagues have replied to the blog (although it seems the distribution curve does not to apply to members of the SCS).  In unusually frank replies staff express their views about the system’s apparent use of quotas and its effect on morale.  They also note that HMRC staff downed tools over this issue in February.  So seemingly there is one appraisal system, but two perspectives on how it works.

It is also worth noting there may be an impact on workplace equality, since the sector employs more women than men below SCS level.  Black and minority ethnic staff, and disabled staff, are also concentrated in the grades where must improve ratings will appear.

3 steps to take when your manager says your work must improve

Are you someone whose performance ‘must improve’ this year?  How about rising to that challenge?  Once that sinking feeling in the pit of your stomach subsides, you should focus on moving forward.  Here are 3 actions to help you to move forward beyond your appraisal:

  • Review the evidence of your previous successful, or above successful, reports (to highlight your favourable customer feedback, transferable strengths and as a reminder your present rating may be quite subjective)
  • Record the specifics of your strategy to take an immediate, positive, next step to achieve a short-term win (something constructive you know you can do well, within your present role, or one that allows you to reassert your ability to achieve good quality results)
  • Recruit a skilled ally, ideally a coach who: understands the significance of your work-life goals; recognises the importance of your values; will remain supportive as your performance returns to its former state.

Civil Servant or not, how will you improve the quality of your work this year?  Why not dip into the Archives, to the right of this post, to get some inspiration as you move forward.