Skip to content

UXL Blog

“Creating Successful Leaders”

Category Archives: Communication

December 13, 2011 How to Explain your Weaknesses during an Interview

By Margaret Smith
SPEAKER | CAREER COACH | CERTIFIED INSIGHTS DISCOVERY PRACTITIONER

“What is one of your weaknesses?” This is a question we’ve all been asked during interviews. It’s not an easy question to answer. But, because you know it’s coming, you can take the time to prepare a response that is graceful, honest, and effective.

Preparation is your key to handling this question in a way that boosts your impact during the interview. Sharing your challenges and flaws—the very things that make you human—can actually help you to come off as a more human, real person.

Joe Grimm of the Pynter Institute, an organization dedicated to integrity in journalism, suggests that interviewees faced with this question should always be honest, and avoid mentioning character flaws because they seldom change. Instead, mention areas where you’re determined to improve. Consider saying something such as, “I’m not as excel-savvy as I’d like to be, but I’m currently improving my skills through internet tutorials.” Never mention strengths as weaknesses.

As with everything, there’s a reasonable limit to the extent of your honest response to this difficult question. In an article about responding to the “weakness question” published in The Washington Post, Heidi McAllister, a local environmental educator who has hired dozens of professionals into government and nonprofit organizations explains that you should be honest, but don’t sabotage yourself. “No one realistically expects to get brutally honest answers like, ‘I’m below average intelligence and difficult to work with.’”

Even though this question may solicit the skewed truth, employers ask it because it helps reveal “whether applicants possess key qualities such as self-awareness, humility, sincerity, zest, and skill in managing shortcomings and mistakes,” says Washington Post journalist Lily Whiteman.

Don’t overthink your response to the point that you panic and don’t have one. As Whiteman reminds us, the worst responses are “I don’t know” and the comical “I have no weaknesses.”

CareerBuilder, the popular job seeker’s resource, outlines this trying question as an opportunity for applicants to demonstrate that they “can think creatively.” Instead of giving a sterile and lifeless response, consider your weaknesses with an attention to “how you have attempted to overcome them,” then weave these proactive actions into your response.

As a final touch, cater your response to the position and organization to which you are applying. Debra Yergen, author of “Creating Job Security Resource Guide”, recommends job seekers imagine themselves sitting on the other side of the desk. Anticipate the motivation and interests of the interviewer when selecting your response and personal story.

Do you have questions about developing your career, business, or landing the job of your dreams? Would your career benefit from informed advice about finding more customers and building a network that gives back? Contact UXL Today to transform the future of your business or career through guided professional coaching.

Tags: , , , ,

November 30, 2011 How to DO LESS and Improve Your Career

By Margaret Smith
SPEAKER | CAREER COACH | CERTIFIED INSIGHTS DISCOVERY PRACTITIONER
Contrary to what you may expect, promoting the talents of others can actually help to showcase your own skills and strengthen your brand. This magical habit is called delegation, and it’s an essential tool to propelling your own career, improving results, developing your personal brand, and keeping your workload under control.

Let’s all start by taking a moment to acknowledge the often-ignored fact: There is only a limited amount you can do, no matter how hard you work. Because we are not super-humans, it’s essential that we learn to let go sometimes.

This having been said, there is a way to get it all done, and done well: delegation. Often, delegation gets overlooked as a viable tool because it is a lot of work upfront. Instead of doing the task yourself, delegation requires you to share your insights, know-how, and expectations with others.

To Delegate, or Not to Delegate: That is the Question

When faced with a new task, don’t just jump into it right away. Instead, ask yourself, “Would this task be a worthy use of my time?” If you continue to accept projects that don’t align to, or properly utilize, your skills, you’re diluting your brand. Perhaps there is someone else who has the skills to do the task better, or who would be eager to develop skills that the task would involve?

Strategically delegating tasks to others allows you to focus on the tasks that reinforce your real skills—those you want to be known for as part of your personal brand. (If you haven’t yet considered what your personal brand is, now is the time to start!)

How to Handle the “Who?”

When considering who to delegate to, take into account the following questions:

  • What are this person’s skills and knowledge?
  • Does this person currently have space in their workload?
  • What is this person’s preferred work style?

Once you have decided on the best candidate, don’t forget to document the process. When practicing delegation, it’s extremely important to keep track of your processes to save time in the future and develop best practices that promote clarity and efficiency. Just as you, say, develop practices that keep your house clean—washing dishes after meals, placing laundry in a hamper, etc—creating processes for sharing tasks at work will cut down on confusion and clutter, not to mention saving time and preventing mistakes.

Your Challenge:

Next time you’re feeling overwhelmed by your workload, fight the urge to dive headfirst into your pile of tasks. Instead, assess these projects and consider whether or not some of them can be delegated to another member of your team instead.

Do you have any helpful tips about delegating effectively? Please share!

Interested in having a helping hand effecting change in your life, finding success in your job hunt or your career? Contact UXL Today!

Tags: , , , , ,

November 7, 2011 The Benefits of Being a Better Listener

By Margaret Smith, Speaker, Career Coach, and Certified Insights Discovery Practitioner
You may feel like you’re already a pretty great listener. Or perhaps you’re ready to admit that your listening skills could use a little improvement. Either way, everyone will benefit from a little refresher on the necessity of being a good listener, with a few helpful tips for staying focused on the person across from you, on the other end of the line, etc.

If your listening skills improve, you’ll also see improvements at work, at home, while socializing, and everywhere in between.

Has there ever been a time in your life when you’ve lost sight of what a conversation was really about? Have you ever been “sucked in” to a toxic conversation or argument that’s become completely unproductive? Of course you have—we all have!

I’ve found that the best way to avoid conversational distractions that become argumentative is to remember this one simple fact: Listening is about gaining knowledge. In a conversation, it’s important that I remain a dedicated listener because otherwise, I may as well have a conversation with myself in the mirror.

By focusing on the messages of others at work, you not only improve productivity, you also strengthen your relationships with the people in your life because you avoid misunderstandings and make others feel heard and understood.

An awesome benefit of being a better listener is the positive impression you leave with those you listen to. Being a better listener actually makes you seem more respectful, composed, and interesting to other people. It may seem counter-intuitive, but displaying genuine interest in what someone else is saying actually makes you a more interesting person to them.

Your Challenge:

Improve your listening skills starting now. Think about your plans for the rest of the day and choose an interaction that you’ll practice improving your listening skills during. This interaction may be with your children when you or they walk in the door, with a supervisor this afternoon, or even with the next person with whom you share a phone conversation.

Share your story: Have you ever interacted with someone who was a really good listener? How did this make you feel? How did it affect your image of, and relationship with, this person?

Interested in learning more about listening or working one-on-one with a professional career coach to gain a competitive edge? Contact Margaret Today to learn about career coaching and UXL’s public workshops!

Tags: , , , ,