Tag Archives: Job Skills

Five Tips to Help You Feel More Confident

Posted on 8 February 2013 by Wendy Mason | 2 Comments

Five Tips to Help You Feel More Confident

This is a post I published a few years ago now but I believe it still useful.

Having a healthy amount of self-esteem and self-confidence is something that helps to make your life happier and more successful. Having confidence in yourself and your abilities goes a long way whether you’re facing a tough decision, adapting to a new situation or facing major change. Here are some tips on how to build your self-esteem.

1. Stay relaxed

Staying relaxed in general can help you see the bigger picture and not sweat the small stuff so much. It’s also a good frame of mind to be in when you’re taking a close look at the things you’re not so good at. There are lots of simple relaxation techniques around that can help – simple breathing exercises are easy to learn and really do help. Try this link.

2. Understand your strengths

Everybody’s good at something, and many people are good at quite a few things. Even if you don’t have a talent or strength that you’re aware of, you probably have some interests you can develop into strengths.Make a list of a few things you’re good at and a few things you’re interested in and would like to be better at. Share this list with someone you like and trust – this is a good exercise to do with a partner who also wants to work on their confidence. They can probably help you find other things you’re good at, too, and help you come up with a plan for developing other skills and interests.

3. Realize your limits.

Remember no one is perfect and no one can do everything. It may not always seem this way, but it’s true. So if you are not the chief executive or a millionaire – that’ is OK! You have a personality and a perspective on the world that’s all your own and completely valuable.

4. Stop criticizing yourself. Now!

This is one of the things that stop us achieving our goals and feeling good about ourselves. You are a mixture of strengths and weaknesses just like everyone else.Concentrate on the good bits! If you don’t do well at a particular project or task the first (or even the second time), it doesn’t mean that you never will. Perhaps you weren’t prepared or the time simply wasn’t right. It doesn’t mean that there is something wrong with you or that you’ll never succeed. It is natural to feel disappointed but don’t get hooked on it – let it go and move on. You’ll be that much closer to achieving what you want if you do.

5. Celebrate the good things.

Notice all the good things you do in a day even the small things.Everything – the favor you do for a friend – the help you give a relative – it’s all good.Notice it and give yourself a big pat on the back.Get hooked on feeling good about what you achieve – it will become a habit. You could always keep a celebration journal to reflect on when you are feeling down. Don’t be afraid to treat yourself when you do something good.

Wendy Mason is the Happiness Coach. Wendy is a life and career coach and writer. She is passionate about helping people find happiness at work and at home! She helps people reach their goals and aspirations, without sacrificing their home and personal life. She believes coaching requires compassion, warmth and empathy. Wendy helps people reach their career goals and aspirations, without sacrificing their home and personal life.You can contact Wendy at wendymason@wisewolfcoaching.com and find out more at http://wisewolfcoaching.com

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Posted in Confidence and Self Esteem

Tagged advice, Competencies, health, Job Skills, Self confidence, Self Esteem, support, tips, Unemployment

Job Search: What Are Your Weaknesses?

Posted on 1 November 2012 by Wendy Mason | 2 Comments

Job Search: What Are Your Weaknesses?

Today we have a short video which deals with that most challenging of interview question: what are you weaknesses. It provides some great advice. What matters is not just the weakness but how you talk about it!

Wendy Mason is a career coach. She helps people reach their goals and aspirations, without sacrificing their home and personal life. Before working as a coach, Wendy had a long career in both the public and private sectors in general management and consultancy as well as spells in HR. She now divides her time between coaching and writing. You can contact Wendy at wendymason@wisewolfcoaching.com and find out more at http://wisewolfcoaching.com

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Posted in Interview technique, Job hunting, Job Search

Tagged Interview technique, Interviews, Job hunting, job interview, Job Search, Job Skills

Embedding Change – Making It Stick And Creating A Culture

Posted on 26 October 2012 by Wendy Mason | Leave a comment

Embedding Change – Making It Stick And Creating A Culture

Here are some ways to make sure the change in your organization is successful

Give them the evidence Show people over and over that the change is real. Provide them with a steady stream of evidence to prove that the change has happened and is successful. Set out to deliver real results at regular intervals in your change process and then tell people about them – don’t just wait for the big bang at the end. Get people involved and then get them to talk about their involvement. Make sure everyone hears the news.
Financial reward When loyalty and the joy of the job are not enough to keep people, they may need some financial or other rewards. The promise of future reward may be enough to keep them engaged but make sure it isn’t too far out to be enticing — usually reasonable reward needs to be within a twelve-month timeframe. This risk is that when the reward is gained, you may lose them. If you want them to stay, you may need to keep a rolling “golden handcuff “ system
Build change into formal systems and structures After a while, institutionalized things become so entrenched, people forget to resist and just do what is required, even if they do not agree with them. So you can make changes stick by building them into the formal fabric of the organization, for example, in standards and personal objectives.
Give them a new challenge A challenge is a great motivator that can focus people on new and different things. Get people to keep up interest in a change by giving them new challenges related to the change. Make sure the challenges really stimulate them and keep them looking to the future.
Reward people for doing the right things. A surprisingly common trap in change is to ask (or even demand) that people change, yet the reward system that is driving their behavior is not changed. Asking for teamwork then rewarding people as individuals is a very common example. So when you make a change, make sure that you align the reward system with the changes that you want to happen.
Rites of passage Rituals are symbolic acts to which we attribute significant meaning. A celebration to mark a change is used in many cultures, ranging from rites of passage to manhood for aboriginal tribes to the wedding ceremonies of Christian and other religions. Such ritual passages are often remembered with great nostalgia, and even the remembrance of them becomes ritualized. When a change is completed, celebrate with a party or some other ritualized recognition of the passing of a key milestone. You can also start a change with a wake (which is a party that is held to celebrate the life of someone who has died) to symbolize letting go of the past. Create new rituals to help shift the culture to a new form. Use these, if possible, to replace the rituals that already exist.
Socializing Build your change into the social fabric. A change that is socialized becomes normal and the ‘way things are’. When something becomes a social norm, people will be far more unlikely to oppose it as to do so is to oppose the group and its leaders. Seal changes by building them into the social structures. Give social leaders prominent positions in the change. When they feel ownership for it, they will talk about it and sell it to others.

If you have other ideas for embedding change and making it successful, please share them here.
Wendy Mason is a career coach. She helps people reach their goals and aspirations, without sacrificing their home and personal life. Before working as a coach, Wendy had a long career in both the public and private sectors in general management and consultancy as well as spells in HR. She now divides her time between coaching and writing. You can contact Wendy at wendymason@wisewolfcoaching.com and find out more at http://wisewolfcoaching.com

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Posted in change, Change Competence, Change Management

Tagged advice, business, business change programmes, change cycle, Change Models, Evidence stream, Golden handcuffs, Institutionalization, Job Skills, leadership, Lewin, Management, New challenge, organisational change, Re-Freezing, resource, Reward alignment, Rites of passage, Socializing, support, tips

Why don’t you want to manage older workers?

Posted on 21 September 2012 by Wendy Mason | 2 Comments

Why don’t you want to manage older workers?

We hear much about the efforts required to get young people into work. And, of course, that is important. But spare a thought for those of us at the other end of the age spectrum.

There may be lots of reasons why older workers are finding it difficult to stay in, and find new opportunities for, work. Lots of those reasons may not be valid for the majority of older workers but they have built up into a prejudice.

Unfortunately, it is true that many who are making hiring decisions believe older workers don’t perform as well as those between 25 and 35 – that seems to be the new “golden zone” for recruits. Older workers are said to demand high pay, cost more in terms of resources, resist change and don’t respond flexibly to fit in with a team. As a result , sometimes carefully disguised, discrimination against older workers is widespread.

Managing an older worker does not require a hugely different approach, to managing a very young person. But some younger managers find the whole prospect daunting – so they do their best to avoid it. The biggest concern employers’ express about hiring older workers is that there will be conflicts when they are managed by younger supervisors. In the US, it is said that an incredible 88 percent of employers worry about hiring older workers because they fear such conflicts.

Managing someone older than you, does seem to touch a very raw nerve in managers and there seems to be a high level of distrust on either side. So how can managers get the best out of their older workers?

In most circumstances, older workers are like other workers – they are unlikely to respond well in a command and control culture. Except in an emergency, older workers are not likely to respond well to being “given orders”. But, they are likely to respond well to an intelligent and enlightened leadership style. This means communicating clearly about issues and challenges.

They welcome being involved in decision making and having tasks delegated to them. Give an older worker responsibility and most are likely to give you their all and share with you their wealth of experience. So, then they expect you to give them recognition for what they have done, including for the wisdom they share with you. If you give your older workers the opportunity, their work will shine just like the grey hair on their heads.

Would you like to reach your career goals and aspirations, while having a fulfilling home and personal life? Find out more at this link

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Posted in Employment, job seeking, Job Skills

Tagged employing older workers, employing seniors, Employment, Human resources, Job Skills, Management, managing older workers, managing seniors, older job search, older workers, Personal development

THE SIMPLEST MODEL OF CHANGE – LEWIN’S FREEZE PHASES

Posted on 7 September 2012 by Wendy Mason | 3 Comments

THE SIMPLEST MODEL OF CHANGE – LEWIN’S FREEZE PHASES

In the early 20th century, psychologist Kurt Lewin identified three stages of change that are still the basis of many approaches today.

Unfreeze

People like to feel safe, and in control,and their sense of identity is tied into their present environment; particularly if it has been relatively stable for a while! This creates a feeling of comfort and any challenges to it, even those which may offer significant benefit, can cause discomfort. See why change hurts!

Talking about the future is rarely enough to move them from this ‘frozen’ state and significant work is usually required to ‘unfreeze’ them and get them moving. In frustration some managers start using a Push method to get them moving – coercing them into a change. This can create a lot of unhappiness and frustration.

The Pull method of leadership, persuasion and modeling behavior takes longer but has a better long-term effect . The term ‘change ready’ is often used to describe people who are “unfrozen” and ready to take the next step. Some people become ready for change fairly easily, whilst others take a long time to let go of their comfortable current realities.

Transition

For Lewin change is a journey. This journey may not be that simple and the person may need to go through several stages of misunderstanding before they get to the other side.

A classic trap in change is for the leaders to spend months on their own personal journeys and then expect everyone else to cross the chasm in a single bound.

Transition takes time and needs leadership and support! But sometimes transition can also be a pleasant trap – it may feel better to travel hopefully than to arrive – particularly for the team leading the change.

Refreeze

At the other end of the journey, the final goal is to ‘refreeze’, putting down roots again and establishing the new place of stability – embedding new processes and developing a new culture.

In practice, refreezing may be a slow process as transitions seldom stop cleanly, but go more in fits and starts with a long tail of bits and pieces. There are good and bad things about this.

In modern organizations, this stage is often rather tentative as the next change may well be around the next corner. What is often encouraged, then, is more of a state of ‘slushiness’ where freezing is never really achieved (theoretically making the next unfreezing easier). The danger with this that many organizations have found is that people fall into a state of change shock, where they work at a low level of efficiency and effectiveness as they await the next change.

If you are serious about being a better leader and doing your best in your career while having a good life at home, I think you will find our new programme interesting! http://gettingtherewithwisewolf.com/

Wendy Mason is a career coach working mainly with managers and professionals who want to make that jump to senior level while maintaining a good work/life balance. Before working as a coach, Wendy had a long career in both the public and private sectors in general management and consultancy as well as spells in HR. She now divides her time between face to face coaching, and coaching and blogging on-line. You can contact Wendy at wendymason@wisewolfcoaching.com and find out more at http://wisewolfcoaching.com

Getting There – Wendy’s Career and Personal Development Programme