Tuesday, January 1, 2008
Sunday, December 23, 2007
Monday, December 17, 2007
Tuesday, December 11, 2007
Personality Bombs
Defusing Personality Bombs At Work
By:
Morey Stettner
Manage enough employees and you'll face individuals with personality disorders. The way you respond can either promote calm or provoke turmoil.
"We all have diverse personalities," said Laurence Miller, a clinical business psychologist in Boca Raton, Fla. "But when personality traits turn into personality disorders, you have a problem."
"From Difficult to Disturbed," Miller describes the most difficult people to manage as "personality stealth bombs." The severity of their dysfunctional personality may not manifest itself at first, but it eventually grates on everyone on the team.
Difficult employees may exhibit narcissism, anti-social behavior and obsessive-compulsive characteristics, Miller says. By knowing how to spot these problems, you can take steps to contain the damage and disruption that these individuals often cause.
"Managers don't need to be psychologists and make clinical diagnoses," Miller said. "They just need to be aware of what to look for and use their intuition."
Narcissistic personalities have a wildly inflated sense of themselves. They think they are superior to others -- smarter and more special -- and as a result they may ignore rules and chafe at constructive criticism. Rarely modest, they tend to hog credit for team accomplishments and make suggestions that they deem brilliant.
"It's important to coach narcissists to follow through on their good ideas," Miller said. Because they crave attention, reward them for implementing their ideas by praising their execution and inviting them to lead training sessions.
Anti-social personalities disregard the respectful communication that characterizes a healthy workplace. They are often "the most malignant" types of employees, Miller said, because they're apt to cheat or steal without compunction.
"Anti-social personalities lie and they're good at it," Miller warned. "They can charm the birds out of the trees, so pin them down. Assess their performance using clear measures so that they can't get around things using glib explanations."
Because these types of employees tend to do the least amount of work that they can and alienate colleagues with their lack of civility, it's especially important to identify and reject job seekers with anti-social personalities.
Always check references and confirm the applicant's claims of achievements in past jobs. Be wary if you detect repeated inconsistencies in the candidate's comments.
Obsessive-compulsive personalities place undue emphasis on minutiae. Their productivity can suffer because they spend too much time fussing and nit-picking, although their love of detail can work well for certain complex or multistep projects.
Manage these individuals by encouraging them to take breaks and appreciate the big picture. Direct their focus on what matters most so that they don't approach every aspect of their job with excessive orderliness.
By:
Morey Stettner
Manage enough employees and you'll face individuals with personality disorders. The way you respond can either promote calm or provoke turmoil.
"We all have diverse personalities," said Laurence Miller, a clinical business psychologist in Boca Raton, Fla. "But when personality traits turn into personality disorders, you have a problem."
"From Difficult to Disturbed," Miller describes the most difficult people to manage as "personality stealth bombs." The severity of their dysfunctional personality may not manifest itself at first, but it eventually grates on everyone on the team.
Difficult employees may exhibit narcissism, anti-social behavior and obsessive-compulsive characteristics, Miller says. By knowing how to spot these problems, you can take steps to contain the damage and disruption that these individuals often cause.
"Managers don't need to be psychologists and make clinical diagnoses," Miller said. "They just need to be aware of what to look for and use their intuition."
Narcissistic personalities have a wildly inflated sense of themselves. They think they are superior to others -- smarter and more special -- and as a result they may ignore rules and chafe at constructive criticism. Rarely modest, they tend to hog credit for team accomplishments and make suggestions that they deem brilliant.
"It's important to coach narcissists to follow through on their good ideas," Miller said. Because they crave attention, reward them for implementing their ideas by praising their execution and inviting them to lead training sessions.
Anti-social personalities disregard the respectful communication that characterizes a healthy workplace. They are often "the most malignant" types of employees, Miller said, because they're apt to cheat or steal without compunction.
"Anti-social personalities lie and they're good at it," Miller warned. "They can charm the birds out of the trees, so pin them down. Assess their performance using clear measures so that they can't get around things using glib explanations."
Because these types of employees tend to do the least amount of work that they can and alienate colleagues with their lack of civility, it's especially important to identify and reject job seekers with anti-social personalities.
Always check references and confirm the applicant's claims of achievements in past jobs. Be wary if you detect repeated inconsistencies in the candidate's comments.
Obsessive-compulsive personalities place undue emphasis on minutiae. Their productivity can suffer because they spend too much time fussing and nit-picking, although their love of detail can work well for certain complex or multistep projects.
Manage these individuals by encouraging them to take breaks and appreciate the big picture. Direct their focus on what matters most so that they don't approach every aspect of their job with excessive orderliness.
Investor's Business Daily
Defusing Personality Bombs At Work
Friday November 30, 6:05 pm ET
Morey Stettner
Manage enough employees and you'll face individuals with personality disorders. The way you respond can either promote calm or provoke turmoil.
"We all have diverse personalities," said Laurence Miller, a clinical business psychologist in Boca Raton, Fla. "But when personality traits turn into personality disorders, you have a problem."
ADVERTISEMENT
Author of "From Difficult to Disturbed," Miller describes the most difficult people to manage as "personality stealth bombs." The severity of their dysfunctional personality may not manifest itself at first, but it eventually grates on everyone on the team.
Difficult employees may exhibit narcissism, anti-social behavior and obsessive-compulsive characteristics, Miller says. By knowing how to spot these problems, you can take steps to contain the damage and disruption that these individuals often cause.
"Managers don't need to be psychologists and make clinical diagnoses," Miller said. "They just need to be aware of what to look for and use their intuition."
Narcissistic personalities have a wildly inflated sense of themselves. They think they are superior to others -- smarter and more special -- and as a result they may ignore rules and chafe at constructive criticism. Rarely modest, they tend to hog credit for team accomplishments and make suggestions that they deem brilliant.
"It's important to coach narcissists to follow through on their good ideas," Miller said. Because they crave attention, reward them for implementing their ideas by praising their execution and inviting them to lead training sessions.
Anti-social personalities disregard the respectful communication that characterizes a healthy workplace. They are often "the most malignant" types of employees, Miller said, because they're apt to cheat or steal without compunction.
"Anti-social personalities lie and they're good at it," Miller warned. "They can charm the birds out of the trees, so pin them down. Assess their performance using clear measures so that they can't get around things using glib explanations."
Because these types of employees tend to do the least amount of work that they can and alienate colleagues with their lack of civility, it's especially important to identify and reject job seekers with anti-social personalities.
Always check references and confirm the applicant's claims of achievements in past jobs. Be wary if you detect repeated inconsistencies in the candidate's comments.
Obsessive-compulsive personalities place undue emphasis on minutiae. Their productivity can suffer because they spend too much time fussing and nit-picking, although their love of detail can work well for certain complex or multistep projects.
Manage these individuals by encouraging them to take breaks and appreciate the big picture. Direct their focus on what matters most so that they don't approach every aspect of their job with excessive orderliness.
"Make sure they don't get bogged down," Miller said. And point 15ut the difference between performing a task well and striving for an unrealistic standard of perfection.
Defusing Personality Bombs At Work
Friday November 30, 6:05 pm ET
Morey Stettner
Manage enough employees and you'll face individuals with personality disorders. The way you respond can either promote calm or provoke turmoil.
"We all have diverse personalities," said Laurence Miller, a clinical business psychologist in Boca Raton, Fla. "But when personality traits turn into personality disorders, you have a problem."
ADVERTISEMENT
Author of "From Difficult to Disturbed," Miller describes the most difficult people to manage as "personality stealth bombs." The severity of their dysfunctional personality may not manifest itself at first, but it eventually grates on everyone on the team.
Difficult employees may exhibit narcissism, anti-social behavior and obsessive-compulsive characteristics, Miller says. By knowing how to spot these problems, you can take steps to contain the damage and disruption that these individuals often cause.
"Managers don't need to be psychologists and make clinical diagnoses," Miller said. "They just need to be aware of what to look for and use their intuition."
Narcissistic personalities have a wildly inflated sense of themselves. They think they are superior to others -- smarter and more special -- and as a result they may ignore rules and chafe at constructive criticism. Rarely modest, they tend to hog credit for team accomplishments and make suggestions that they deem brilliant.
"It's important to coach narcissists to follow through on their good ideas," Miller said. Because they crave attention, reward them for implementing their ideas by praising their execution and inviting them to lead training sessions.
Anti-social personalities disregard the respectful communication that characterizes a healthy workplace. They are often "the most malignant" types of employees, Miller said, because they're apt to cheat or steal without compunction.
"Anti-social personalities lie and they're good at it," Miller warned. "They can charm the birds out of the trees, so pin them down. Assess their performance using clear measures so that they can't get around things using glib explanations."
Because these types of employees tend to do the least amount of work that they can and alienate colleagues with their lack of civility, it's especially important to identify and reject job seekers with anti-social personalities.
Always check references and confirm the applicant's claims of achievements in past jobs. Be wary if you detect repeated inconsistencies in the candidate's comments.
Obsessive-compulsive personalities place undue emphasis on minutiae. Their productivity can suffer because they spend too much time fussing and nit-picking, although their love of detail can work well for certain complex or multistep projects.
Manage these individuals by encouraging them to take breaks and appreciate the big picture. Direct their focus on what matters most so that they don't approach every aspect of their job with excessive orderliness.
"Make sure they don't get bogged down," Miller said. And point 15ut the difference between performing a task well and striving for an unrealistic standard of perfection.
Wednesday, December 5, 2007
Manager's Scheduling Skills
4 Step Scheduling Secrets
Now, finally, you have reached the climax where you learn how to put together an effective, time management schedule aimed at providing you with the very best results. It takes just five steps to make this successful.
Step One: Identify and implement time for your tasks. If you are working at home, you need time to be scheduled to be dedicated to the job at hand. If you work in an office, be sure to note that your time is from 9am to noon then from 1pm until 5pm, for example. Your personal life can be scheduled around as needed, but schedule time for work specifically.
Step Two: Now, schedule the time you need for accomplish the regular activities of your job. This may include things like working with others, giving direction, paying invoices, organizing your schedule and so forth. This should be time that you must dedicate to making your job successful. These are items you do not have a choice but to do even if they are at a set time.
Step Three: Use your To Do List to help you to schedule in the important activities on your schedule. Start with all of your number one or highest priority items and block them in on your schedule. Then, move on to the next times until you go through your entire list, allotting time to each of the most important tasks.
Some items may not make it into your schedule. That is to be expected. That is not necessarily a problem if they are truly the bottom of the line. If their priority changes over time, change them to fit into your schedule as you see fit. Be sure that all tasks that can not be given to anyone one else are scheduled for you here.
Step Four: Extra time schedule as necessary. Here, you need to begin by knowing how long it will take you to complete the task. For example, if you have to write that column you may know that it will take you one full hour to actually write out the column. Block in that hour.
But in addition to this, do give yourself what is called contingency time. This is time that is provided to you as a padding because as you know it is not likely that you will get an entire hour that is uninterrupted by something or someone. Over time you can make better decisions on how much of this time you will actually need.
You will need to be sure that you are giving yourself enough time here. You may actually find yourself struggling to find the time to accomplish this task too. Yet, go back and find spots and locations where you can grab a few minutes here and there so that at the end of the day you do have this time.
You should also remember that delegation is a key to success. If you have to handle something yourself, by all means do so. But, when you can give off a bit of that to someone else, go for it. All successful business people must master delegation to gain the most benefit for their time and their money.
As you can see from this five step program, managing your time can be quite simple when you work through the program. You will need to consistently revisit your goals, tweak them and your Action Plans to actually help you to make all aspects work at their best, but that is a simple method of achieving success that can not be avoided.
Be sure to take full advantage of the benefits that scheduling can offer to you. Don't jump ahead and try to have a schedule without goals as it will not produce the same results!
Now, finally, you have reached the climax where you learn how to put together an effective, time management schedule aimed at providing you with the very best results. It takes just five steps to make this successful.
Step One: Identify and implement time for your tasks. If you are working at home, you need time to be scheduled to be dedicated to the job at hand. If you work in an office, be sure to note that your time is from 9am to noon then from 1pm until 5pm, for example. Your personal life can be scheduled around as needed, but schedule time for work specifically.
Step Two: Now, schedule the time you need for accomplish the regular activities of your job. This may include things like working with others, giving direction, paying invoices, organizing your schedule and so forth. This should be time that you must dedicate to making your job successful. These are items you do not have a choice but to do even if they are at a set time.
Step Three: Use your To Do List to help you to schedule in the important activities on your schedule. Start with all of your number one or highest priority items and block them in on your schedule. Then, move on to the next times until you go through your entire list, allotting time to each of the most important tasks.
Some items may not make it into your schedule. That is to be expected. That is not necessarily a problem if they are truly the bottom of the line. If their priority changes over time, change them to fit into your schedule as you see fit. Be sure that all tasks that can not be given to anyone one else are scheduled for you here.
Step Four: Extra time schedule as necessary. Here, you need to begin by knowing how long it will take you to complete the task. For example, if you have to write that column you may know that it will take you one full hour to actually write out the column. Block in that hour.
But in addition to this, do give yourself what is called contingency time. This is time that is provided to you as a padding because as you know it is not likely that you will get an entire hour that is uninterrupted by something or someone. Over time you can make better decisions on how much of this time you will actually need.
You will need to be sure that you are giving yourself enough time here. You may actually find yourself struggling to find the time to accomplish this task too. Yet, go back and find spots and locations where you can grab a few minutes here and there so that at the end of the day you do have this time.
You should also remember that delegation is a key to success. If you have to handle something yourself, by all means do so. But, when you can give off a bit of that to someone else, go for it. All successful business people must master delegation to gain the most benefit for their time and their money.
As you can see from this five step program, managing your time can be quite simple when you work through the program. You will need to consistently revisit your goals, tweak them and your Action Plans to actually help you to make all aspects work at their best, but that is a simple method of achieving success that can not be avoided.
Be sure to take full advantage of the benefits that scheduling can offer to you. Don't jump ahead and try to have a schedule without goals as it will not produce the same results!
Saturday, November 17, 2007
WRITE A RESUME WITH POWER
PUT YOUR BEST FOOT FORWARD
The job of the employer is to pour through, sometimes, hundreds of resumes each and every day. They have a well-trained eye for scanning and for identifying the candidates that interest them most. All the same, they must read through all kinds of really boring information.
Some resumes read like a long list of data that is anything like remarkable. Your resume, however, will not. Your resume will be formatted to give your prospective employer your most meaningful and interesting information first and then all of the pertinent, less exciting information, after.
Your resume packs a punch to begin with and then you boldly assert your best qualities and talents. Now, you will back up your assertions by proving you know your stuff. You will now show how qualified you are for the job based on your work experience.
WRITING YOUR RESUME WITH POWER
Use These Resume Power Words with Confidence
A
accomplished advertised arranged
achieved advised assembled
acquired analyzed assisted
adapted appraised audited
adjusted approved augmented
administered arbitrated authored
B
budgeted built
C
calculated conceived coordinated
catalogued conceptualized copyrighted
charted conducted corrected
closed (a deal) consolidated corresponded
coached constructed counseled
compared consulted created
compiled contacted cultivated
completed controlled
composed convinced
D
debugged detected discovered
decreased determined dispatched
delegated developed distributed
delivered devised documented
designated diagnosed
designed directed
E
edited enhanced examined
elicited enlarged exceeded
eliminated established executed
empowered estimated expanded
engineered evaluated explained
F
fired flagged formulated
founded
G
gathered generated guided
H
headed hired
I
identified initiated interpreted
ignited innovated interviewed
implemented inspected invented
improved installed inventoried
increased instituted
influenced instructed
J
justified
L
lectured lobbied logged
led
M
maintained mediated motivated
managed modified
manufactured monitored
N
negotiated
O
obtained ordered overhauled
operated organized
P
patented prepared programmed
performed presented promoted
persuaded presided proposed
placed processed provided
planned produced purchased
posted proficient
Q
quantified qualified
R
recognized reorganized researched
recommended repaired restored
reconciled replaced reviewed
reduced reported revised
referred represented
regulated rescued
S
scheduled sold suggested
screened solved supervised
selected steered supplied
served streamlined systematized
simplified studied
T
taught tracked transcribed
tested trained translated
traced
U
updated utilized
V
vended
W
won wrote
As a practice exercise, take your old resume, and at random, look for places to insert good power words. Watch how quickly your old resume will be transformed!
Make good use of adjectives when writing your resume.
Remember, an Adjective Describes. When writing your resume you want to be able to describe all that is important to you and your accomplishments.
Write with description and your resume will be more interesting!
KudoSurf Me!
Adrienne Manson
www.skill-center.highpowersites.com
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