October 2011 Archives

In baseball, the term "clubhouse cancer" is used to describe a player, coach or member of the team who seems to destroy the team chemistry from within. For the Boston Red Sox this year, a "mole" reported to the media that players were drinking during games, that Terry Francona was facing addictions and marital troubles, and assorted other players had basically lost respect for the team.

In your social life and in your business relationships, upon reflection you may find that there is a need for social life chemotherapy or business relationship chemotherapy. In these cases, the only way to cure these ills is to address the relationship or address the person; sometimes that means removing people from your life or fixing the relationship flaws to keep the relationship strong.

Recently, I did a small bit of social life chemotherapy by eliminating some people and situations from my life that were causing me too much angst and not enough benefit. I challenge you this week to look at the changes you need to make; very often, they are subtracting situations and people from your life versus adding anything that is missing.

I've expanded by client base to include clients from Tampa, St. Petersburg and Orlando. Each month, I'm spending a few days in the sunnier climate to not only meet and work with new clients and businesses, but also to recharge my batteries.

An HR practice I need to employ as my business grows will be to depend on a remote workforce that I don't see regularly. I've gotten good practice at working remotely with others through my Virtual Internship Program students, so I feel I am prepared to go even further by eventually hiring remote freelancers and eventually employees.

Trust and time management are the two crucial elements of remote work. I've found my best interns have reported to me on time, managed their time well, and worked with limited supervision.

If you'd like to find out more how to manage Virtual Interns or staff, contact me and I'll be happy to offer you some insights.

It's bad enough I have to get questions from friends and relatives on a regular basis about my marital status or if I have "anyone special" in my life; it would probably be even worse if I made public on my Facebook page if I was single, in a relationship, married or the ever popular "it's complicated." To me, my dating life is personal. I don't ask people why they are married or in a relationship and I'd prefer people not ask me if I am or not in one myself!

I leave my personal life to people's imagination; it's better that way and adds a little to the mystique I suppose of this exciting life that people think I lead!

My advice to you - keep your personal life off of the web. No one needs to know who you are dating, when you are dating them, or whether or not you are single or in a relationship.

Especially if you are looking to secure clients or business through the web, changing your status from single to it's complicated to in a relationship can give people the wrong signals about you and the person you'd like to be perceived as.

Do what I do - leave the relationship status blank!

I'm offering a 12 week course called Career Communications Concepts online. This course goes over the basics of presentations, conference calls, webinars, resume building, LinkedIn profile creation and much much more.

For one lucky winner, I am going to be offering free access to this course. To enter the contest, send a 200 word or less email to me at robert@saratogacollege.com with the reasons why I should give you access to the course. I'll pick the winner on 11/5/11 after reading all the entries.

Whether you are out of work, looking to improve your position in life through better communication, or looking to enhance the skills you already have, Career Communications Concepts is a course at SaratogaCollege.com that you should definitely consider!

(Kelsey Weiss is a Skidmore College student participating in the Braathe Enterprises Virtual Internship Program)

First, let's go back to the basics:

1. Companies are made up of people.
2. Employees must work together in different situations in order to accomplish whatever task they have been assigned.
3. If a team can't work together, the task will either not be completed or the team will have a very frustrating and difficult experience in order to come up with a solution.

No matter what company you work for or what industry you're in, teamwork and collaboration are essential to dealing with any problem, idea, or suggestion. Whether you are deciding what to have for lunch or how to develop a new product, teamwork is indispensable if trying to find the best resolution possible.

In his talk entitled: "Build a tower, build a team," Tom Wujec addresses how different teams work together when given the seemingly simple task of designing a tower made of spaghetti and placing a marshmallow on top. Wujec describes the teams' beginning creative process, which typically falls into two succinct steps: orienting to the task, which includes fighting for power, and the second as planning and organizing.

When team members don't have to fight for power, assuming that there is already a hierarchy of some kind previously established in the workplace, the team members work together more effectively. Without a power complex, teams can easily create prototypes and refine them to ultimately come up with the best plan to solve their prompt.

In order to build a strong team, the members must speak a "common language" in terms of what they want to accomplish and how they plan to work together. The inherent challenge present in team building concerns the underlying factors, most importantly, varying skill sets. If the secret to finding the paramount solution is collaboration, then each member's skill set needs to facilitate the project in some way.

No matter what stakes are put in place, if a team is not able to capitalize and utilize their team members' attributes, then it is impossible for them to create prototypes that lead them to their end goal. In essence, teamwork is imperative to a company's success, but only if the team can effectively identify their assets and collaborate to come up with the most effective result.


Tom Wujec: Build a tower, build a team
http://www.ted.com/talks/tom_wujec_build_a_tower.html

"Change is the end result of all true learning"
-- Leo Buscaglia

Online education and online colleges are as common as eating bagels for breakfast. But how do you determine if online education is right for you? Do you have the skills and drive to be a successful online student? Ask yourself the following questions:

I. What type of learner are you? Do you prefer hands-on involvement when we are learning or do you prefer listening to someone explain how to do something?

II. Are you an outgoing, social person who enjoys being around people, or are you more introverted, preferring instead to work alone? Do you need contact with other students beyond Facebook chats and Skype chats?

III. Are you technically savvy and have the proper equipment? In order to be successful perusing an online education you must have basic computer skills and high speed internet access preferably at home.

IV. What's you personality type? Do you prefer being in a classroom setting with other students? Do you prefer being in the comfort of your personal space while studying? Online learning settings can provide opportunities for students to communicate within the course itself by holding online discussions and blogs, you must determine if social media forums is enough interaction for you to be successful.

V. Does anyone have any questions? Ask lots of questions about all facets of online programs from your career counselor, academic advisor, or any social media outlet. These mediums will allow you to understand all the benefits and potential drawbacks for you as an individual.

VI. Test drive? If given the opportunity take a class for free or sit in on an online session to get the experience which will help you answer the question listed above. It will help you appreciate the dynamics of online education. Finally make a pros/cons list of similarities and differences of online verse more traditional education and make a decision!!

A good place to start your research is saratogacollege.com and elearners.com

Good luck in your quest for higher education!

I get letters all the time from people complaining about how horrible their bosses are (or were) and how they've managed to deal with the situation. A common theme seems to exist in all of these letters; "I work for someone who doesn't get it, and they work for someone who refuses to see that they don't get it."

Horrible bosses don't become that way overnight; they often will see what they can get away with and what their boss will turn a blind eye to, and then continue to calculate attacks, mistreat others, and perform poorly until the day finally comes where someone comes across their way who won't put up with it anymore.

As I've said in prior posts, sometimes the best things to do to avoid a horrible boss are to find a new job or find a way to deal with the boss until they end up leaving on their own.

A great book worth reading on horrible bosses and how they affect the workplace is Good Boss, Bad Boss: How to Be the Best and Learn from The Worst

In this book, Robert Sutton outlines the things you can do to learn from the worst bosses ever, and how to avoid becoming one yourself!

Whether it is the night audit position of a hotel or inn, a security position, or any other position requiring an overnight shift, it takes a special person and set of skills to work the 3rd shift. People need to have the support of their family (or not have a family) in many cases for people to remain on the 3rd shift for an extended period. What I have noticed is that people who excel at working the overnight have partners in their life who work the same shift and/or enjoy working those hours to allow them to balance their school/work/life balance.

In some cases, where I have seen companies fail in their HR strategy on the 3rd shift is to not tailor the work schedule to the needs of the people. At one of my former employers, instead of having our staff on the 3rd shift work 5 nights from 11-7, we moved their schedule to four nights from 10-8. This gave them the opportunity to interact with more of the daytime staff (allowing them to feel more integral to the operation), and allowed us to retain our third shift staff for longer periods.

One way I'd like to see employers address the third shift issue is to split it up into a different schedule - schedule one employee from 5pm to 3am and another from 3am to 11am. Alternatively, splitting the third shift altogether into smaller 5 hour shifts when necessary from 11pm-4am and 4am-9am to maximize staffing options.

In a world based on "who you know", LinkedIn is a perfect place to start generating an impressive list of who you know and more importantly, who you want to know.

LinkedIn is the hub for business networking with 100 million users in over 200 countries with an additional 1 million users joining weekly. Those are impressive stats for anyone looking to interact and make business connects. Let's explore the four important "Find's" LinkedIn has to offer subscribers....FREE!!

- Find Business Contacts- Connect with people. Find business associates, current and former colleagues, customers, alumni, etc. to invite to your LinkedIn network.

- Find a Job - Linkedin provides subscribers the ability to search for jobs by using random criteria, looking through one's connects, allowing employers to seek out candidates, and by expanding your network organically.

- Find potential clients- It's important to make sure you have a fully completed profile with clear content, since potential clients will want to know about you professionally, and join or start groups based on your interests.

-Find and create Groups - a LinkedIn group is the ideal place to manage a professional community. It helps to build contacts, provides a platform for building business goals and generating interest in your business. Be sure to invite key business figures and make them contacts to further and develop professionally.

Now you have a better understanding about how LinkedIn works and what it can do for you, give it a try and transform the list of people you want to know into a list of people you do know.

Stop by the Albany Marriott today on Wolf Rd to meet prospective employers and get your resume reviewed. I will be there from 2-5pm today offering complimentary resume critiques.

Here is a link to companies that will be at the Times Union Job Fair today

If you aren't able to make it to the fair today but still want your resume reviewed for free, feel free to email it to me before Friday 10/15 and I'll be happy to take a look at it for you

robert@saratogacollege.com

Here is a map so you can find your way to the Albany Marriott from wherever you are coming from

View Larger Map

One of the issues many HR people face as well as many who work for themselves is access to quality affordable office and meeting space for use on a semi-regular basis. I share office space with the McNeary Realty team in Saratoga Springs when I need to meet clients, students or interns.

I'd like to share with you an exciting opportunity for affordable office space and business support in Saratoga Springs. If you have a business and are looking for a place that has:

- Free Wi-Fi
- Meeting Room for up to 6 people
- Conference Space for up to 12 people
- Access to Projector
- Cubicles
- Private Office Space
- Close to Downtown Saratoga Springs
- PC and Printer available for use

We are looking for interested businesses who'd like to rent space at 12 Circular ST in Saratoga Springs. We have affordable monthly plans that include office space only or access to our virtual internship team at Braathe Enterprises.

For more information, email me at robert@saratogacollege.com

Come by the Saratoga City Center Wednesday 10/6 from 10-4 to attend a variety of free workshops, meet prospective employers, and get your resume critiqued.

I'll be at the event from 10-12 and 2-4 offering free resume critiques.

Workshop List

10:15am Your Job Search Made Easier with Social Media - Melissa Ward
11:00am Teachers-Teach! - Richard Michael Holmes
11:45am Look and Sound Different to Prospective Employers - Bruce Parsons
12:30pm Resumes, Cover Letters, Applying on-line - Susan Van Raalte
1:15pm Job Listings and Networking - Susan Van Raalte
2:00pm What am I worth? - Tiziana Rota
2:45pm Five Minutes to Find Your Vocation - Marion Altieri
3:15pm Ageism is Real But We Don't Care - Marion Altieri