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“Creating Successful Leaders”

Tag Archives: Career Coach Advice

June 12, 2013 Promoting Your Potential

Just because you might not have a list of awards or credentials under your belt doesn’t make you an unfavorable candidate for the job. In fact, quite the opposite.

A study conducted by Zakary Tormala and Jayson Jia of Stanford and Michael Norton of Harvard Business School reveals that potential has more of an alluring power than achievements do.

Although going for the individual with more achievements is the safer option, Tormala et al. argue that “the uncertainty surrounding individuals with high potential makes them more interesting, which draws people in, increases processing, and can have positive downstream effects on judgment.” High potential gets noticed.

Sure, with an old pro you can feel more confident that they’ll perform up to standard, but pruning a new recruit reflects better on your own resume. But if you think about it, wouldn’t you rather bring on an undeveloped talent and have them flourish under your supervision than recruit an old pro who’s already done it all before?

If you’re just breaking into a new field, don’t be intimidated by a veteran’s long and decorated list of achievements. A common mistake inexperienced applicants make is downplaying or entirely ignoring the fact that they are a new face.

Use your inexperience as a distinguishing advantage. Instead of saying, “I must admit that I haven’t worked in this area before, but…” say, “With me, you’ll get the rare opportunity to train me in ways tailored precisely to this business. No bad habits here!”

Tormala, Zakary, Jia, Jayson, and Michael Norton: “The Preference for Potential.” Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 103 (2012): 567-583. Accessed June 10, 2013. doi: 10.1037/a0029227.

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June 5, 2013 Save Money And Gain Knowledge With Online Courses

Paying for college is a drag, and although the job market is much better now than it was when I first began coaching a few years back, it’s still tough to know whether getting another degree is a smart investment.

The good news is Massive Open Online Courses, or “MOOC’s,” are providing people the world over with quality courses, free of charge. These classes are taught by real professors from some top notch schools, and MOOCs take advantage of video chat technology to create a sense of community.

Perhaps the company that’s making the biggest waves is Coursera. Having teamed up with universities like Stanford, University of Pennsylvania and Princeton, Coursera provides five undergrad courses that the American Council on Education has approved to count toward college credit.

What excites me isn’t free college credit, even though this is a big step toward an affordable education. I’m excited about the opportunity this gives anyone who wants accessible, flexible and personal learning. Classes typically run from 6-12 weeks, and you are free to take as many or as few as you’d like. This gives even the busiest of us the chance to advance our education. And we can do it however we want.

If you’ve always been meaning to get caught up on the classic novels, for instance, take a literature course! If you’re crummy at math and don’t want to be anymore, there are math classes as basic as geometry 1. Or, you can develop the skills you apply everyday at work. Coursera offers economics courses, marketing courses and integrated technology courses, to name a few, all of which address real-world needs.

Oh, and did I mention it’s free?

 

The Next Web. “Online learning goes official as five Coursera courses get approved by the American Council on Education.”  Accessed June 4, 2013. http://thenextweb.com/insider/2013/02/07/online-learning-goes-official-as-five-coursera-courses-get-approved-by-the-american-council-on-education/

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May 29, 2013 Being Consistent About Being Consistent

Whether it’s achieving a personal goal, boosting your business or developing relationships, perhaps the most important ingredient to success in any of these endeavors is consistency.

That’s all well and good, but what does this look like? How do we attain it? In other words, how does a person remain consistent about being consistent?

Widening the parameters

“One of the problems with temptations,” writes professor of psychology Timothy A. Pychyl, “is that they can seem relatively harmless. It seems so reasonable and seductive to conclude that not running ‘just today’ won’t harm our long-term health goals, and that eating that jelly donut won’t ruin our weight-loss goal.”

It’s true, one jelly donut won’t make you fat. But that isn’t the point, is it? A person becomes unhealthy by repeating unhealthy behavior over time. It’s not the one jelly donut, it’s the very many “just one” jelly donuts. By keeping the parameters strictly in the present, we actually make the problem worse.

A solution is to view your actions on a wider time-scale, as links in a chain which create an overall pattern of behavior. With a broader picture of your actions in mind, it becomes clear that “just this one” is really one of a great many. Change the action at the immediate level on a daily basis, and soon you’ll change the pattern entirely.

Consistency reinforces itself

It’s sobering knowing that one bad action leads to a pattern, but the good news is that this works in the reverse too. Since behaviors come in bundles, we can modify a single action every day knowing that this will soon develop into a bigger life pattern. In other words, don’t worry about taking on a huge self-improvement project. Focus on daily actions and feel good about those.

Speaking of which, I’m sure you’ve found that feeling good about your actions is addictive. And I’ll let you in on a little secret: you don’t need to feel guilty about feeling good about yourself! Use it to your advantage.

Consistency reveals character

We’re familiar with the phrase, “actions speak louder than words.” I’m guessing you’ve also experienced that terrible disconnect between your own actions and words. This is the result of a lack of consistency. In an ideal world, what you believe and what you do should line up perfectly. We don’t live in an ideal world, so you can forget about any idea of perfection. But what you can do is work toward consistency between your inner and outer selves. Act on your principles–little things, everyday. Clean up after the messes you’ll inevitably make, apologize for your inconsistencies, but keep forming new links in positive behavior chain.

One link, everyday!

Psychology Today. “More Effective Goal Intentions: Think Width and Consistency.” Accessed May 28, 2013. http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/dont-delay/201011/more-effective-goal-intentions-think-width-and-consistency

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