Category Archives: Professional Advice
Some of my Meltwater colleagues recently sent around a thought-provoking piece published recently in the New York Times. Guy Kawasaki, a co-founder of Alltop, a news aggregation site, and managing director of Garage Technology Ventures, reflects on lessons learned so far in his career and gives advice on building important skills.
His first job, of all things, was selling jewelry, and he says he learned a fundamental lesson: “… how to sell. Sales is everything. As long as you’re making sales,” he says, “you’re still in the game.”
Guy interestingly goes on to criticize the investment banking and consulting professions, advising graduates…
Performance reviews can be tough. Myself, my friends and my colleagues often experience anxiety prior to going into quarterly or annual reviews. So when I came across a blog post titled “How to Sail Through Your Performance Review,” I just had to share some of the advice here:
- Know what you’ve done well. Before you go into your review, make sure you know your strengths, accomplishments and be ready to articulate them. I have outlined all my goals and objectives for the next six months and keep a running tally of my accomplishments. Additionally, it’s a good idea to make a…
As a kid I used to play a game with my sisters we called the “Trust Game”. It was a simple game with a deeper lesson than I realized back then. My oldest sister, Stephanie, would stand behind me, I would close my eyes and fall backwards, allowing her to (and hoping she would) catch me. In the few seconds before I felt her arms catching me, a rush of doubt and fear flooded my mind. However, once I felt her arms and knew I was saved from falling to the ground, comfort and joy overwhelmed me. It was the…
Starting a budget and staying on budget is a common New Year’s resolution, and I think it’s a great one in this economic environment. But just like every year when you decide to get in shape, continuing those gym visits come March is really difficult. The same is true for budgets – how do you stick with your resolution?
The trick to successfully sticking to your budget is simple – have a budget that is reasonable and that you can stick to. Look through your financial statements and group your expenditures into buckets that your spending habits fall into (e.g. dining…
My brother and his girlfriend recently started taking their new dog to puppy school. They learned that the most effective way to train a puppy is to reward desired behavior, not disciplining bad behavior. Receiving no positive reinforcement for bad behavior, the dog is not really interested in being naughty. Anxious for praise and other small snack rewards has him on track to becoming a star pup.
When I heard this story I thought about the parallels to management. The times I’ve performed at my best have been when my manager has given me trust and plenty of positive reinforcement.
I received…
