Australia's leading Career Newsletter - Career Communique x-Press

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In this issue...

Greetings

Coach's Corner:
Dealing with difficult colleagues, bosses and clients: Using the DISC language to enhance your workplace relationships – Part 4

Ace that Interview:
Job knock-backs: asking for feedback

Your question answered:
How to: Returning to work after a career break

Resources & Tools to Catapult Your Career

Friday 01, August 2008
ISSN:1835-8551
Volume XIV, Issue 35

Published every fortnight on Friday. To change your subscription, see link at the end of the email.

Career Communiqué x-Press supports people in accelerating their level of success in the job market and the workplace; and businesses in boosting their staff performance and profitability!

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Note from Annemarie...

Hi,

Welcome to anther issue of Career Communiqué x-Press, and especially a warm ‘hello’ to all of our new subscribers. We consider it a real privilege to have you join us!

This past weekend I attended the Reinvent your Career expo, and as part of a team of career coaches from the CDAA (Career Development Association of Australia), provided half hour career coaching sessions to event attendees.

As you can imagine we were flat out for the entire two days. Here is a picture of the people lining up at our booth, waiting to speak to our consultants. The queue practically extended from one side of the centre to the other, and this was certainly not a small event centre.

It was sad to hear similar stories from people who felt stuck in totally meaningless jobs. A few of my colleagues had people in tears, feeling miserable and confused about their future job prospects. Hopefully our meetings, though brief, have provided the impetus these people desperately needed to begin making changes, taking action and making small steps toward a fulfilling career! Seeing the smiles on their faces as they left with ideas on how to get unstuck from their current situation was just fantastic. After all, if you’re going to spend 40+ hours in a role you might as well enjoy what you are doing – right?

What about you? Do you dread going to work each morning? Does the day just drag by? Do you feel drained of energy at the end of each day and it just does not seem to be easing up? If you have answered yes to any of these questions I wonder what steps you could take over the next fortnight to change this situation.

Hope you enjoy this fortnight’s article!

Remember, we always welcome your feedback and suggestions, so pop across to our Ask Annemarie site and submit your topic of interest, question or comment. Or alternatively, visit our blog at Career Communiqué blog to share a success story or some insight for our special Subscriber Spotlight section ‘Your question answered’. I’m sure they’d love to hear from you!

Dealing with difficult colleagues, bosses and clients: Using the DISC language to enhance your workplace relationships – Part 4

Do you have a boss, a colleague or a client with whom you have difficulty communicating? Are you finding your team meetings going round in circles, never quite reaching agreement or goal achievement? Do you find it easy to get along with some of your colleagues however other colleagues seem to drive you insane? If you answered ‘yes’ to the above questions, this fortnight’s article presents a unique tool that will allow you to begin improving your workplace communications and relationships.

Until next time,

To your success!

Annemarie Cross
Career Management & Career Development Specialist

Coach's Corner

Dealing with difficult colleagues, bosses and clients: Using the DISC language to enhance your workplace relationships – Part 4

Following on from Part 3 of our DISC language series and how to optimise your communication and workplace relationships with difficult colleagues, bosses and clients, in today’s case study we meet Katie.

Katie’s account management role had recently been made redundant and being a valuable employee was moved to another division within her company. Katie’s new supervisor was thrilled to have her as part of her team, aware of the fact that she was a committed employee who consistently delivered quality outcomes.

It wasn’t long however, before Katie began to feel quite lost in her new role and was considering handing in her notice. Not wanting to lose this valuable new employee, her supervisor approached me and asked for some strategies on how to deal with the situation.

After speaking with Katie it became apparent that she was extremely high in the C factor.

To recap the C factor stands for Compliance; how a person responds to rules and procedures set by others. People who are high in the ‘C’ factor are extremely conscientious, systematic, analytical and methodical. They love to follow procedures and do things by the book. Being aware of and sensitive to the dangers of errors in their work they constantly strive toward a better way of doing things, while aiming for perfection in everything they do

Katie loved to follow procedures and when working on solving problems or trying to improve her performance, ensured that she had researched all possible avenues thoroughly before making any decisions. She valued hard work and dedication and always strived to deliver the best outcome she could.

This was quite the opposite to a number of her new team members, who seemed to want to rush through the work, making hasty decisions that she believed left the team wide open for project errors.

Team meetings had become extremely difficult with the tension in the air growing increasingly worse and it was not uncommon for a few staff to roll their eyes when Katie kept questioning, clarifying points and asking for further evidence.

These were some of the communication strategies I forwarded through to Katie’s boss.

When communicating with Katie, it is important that he and the team:

Support her ideas with accurate information
Are specific when explaining themselves
Are patient, persistent and diplomatic while providing explanations
Agree with facts rather than emotions when agreeing with her
Allow Katie to have her space and independence
Tell her up front of their expectations of her
Provide the pros and cons of an argument

When speaking to Katie, the team should no longer:

Refuse to explain details to her
Answer her questions vaguely or casually
Surprise her with new information

By gaining an appreciation of Katie’s communication style and behavioural approach and through adopting a number of these communication strategies, it wasn’t long before the team was able to generate fruitful outcomes from their meetings. The team members who originally rolled there eyes now ensured that they explained themselves clearly and had various charts and reports that Katie could review and allowed her time to think and come to a decision.

If you recognise some of Katie’s communication and behavioural patterns in one of your colleagues, try adopting some of the above strategies and see what an impact that will make when dealing with someone with a high C factor.

Till next fortnight!

To your success!

Annemarie

Ace that Interview!

Job knock-backs: asking for feedback

A question that was raised by one of our readers was: “When I know I was one out of two people in an interview and the job went to the other person, how can I find out the reason why I was not selected – even though I know I was perfectly suited for the role (and thought I would be offered the job)?”

This is a great question and one that stumps many job seekers. The answer is plain and simple - request feedback from the interviewer.

Requesting feedback from an interviewer is something that I encourage all my clients to do and is certainly an important process you should also consider doing as part of your job search.

While you may think that your experience is a perfect match it may not always mean that you are communicating this appropriately within your résumé or your interview, and getting feedback will allow you to measure how you are coming across to a potential employer.

Make contact with the interviewer and ask whether you could take a few minutes of their time for him/her to provide you with his/her honest criticism to assist you in your job search.

Ask them what led them to make the decision not to offer you the role? Was the successful candidate more experienced? Did the other candidate portray themselves better during the interview and if so, what could you have done differently or answered differently in order for them to have considered offering the role to you?

While this may seem awkward (and often confronting having to listen to honest feedback), it certainly is a worthwhile exercise. Be appreciative of the feedback you receive and use it as a learning opportunity. Continue refining and practicing your interview techniques so that the next time you interview for a similar role, you will portray yourself as the best possible candidate and secure the job offer.

Want to learn how to move confidently despite having received a ‘no thanks’ response? You can!! Grab your copy of 10 key steps to Ace that Interview! Today! Send me Ace that Interview today!

Need to get your hands on 10 key steps to Ace that Interview! immediately for an unexpected interview? Get a copy of our new e-Book version delivered to your inbox today! Send me Ace that Interview today!

Note: Want to learn more about how our laser-focused interview telecoaching sessions can drastically improve your interview performance? Click here to find out how.

Subscriber Spotlight: Your questions answered…

How to: Returning to work after a career break

Dear Annemarie

I would like to return to work after a five month break. My background is diverse. It runs from management and customer service to restaurant to teaching preschool. How would you suggest I market myself for customer service/management with all this diversity?

Thank you for your help.

Theresa

Hi Theresa

As you have identified your desire to target a customer service/management role I would recommend that your initial step be to research and collate all of your relevant experience, accountabilities and contributions within your career that pertain directly to this target.

Some points to keep in mind while you perform your research: don’t discredit positions that you feel do not directly relate to your target as these positions can certainly include gems, with great relevant transferable skills as well. For instance, the restaurant business is very much customer service oriented so you may want to highlight any interactions you may have had with customers - i.e. resolution of complaints, retention, customer base growth etc. What about leadership of any new staff members within the restaurant that could confirm relevant management and coordination competencies? Staff training, support and mentoring; problem-solving, multi-tasking without compromise to quality; deadline achievement through sound time- and resource-management – these would certainly also be great skills pertinent to a management role.

Your teaching position may have required you to spearhead coordination and management of special functions or projects; leading and directing a group of boisterous preschoolers is certainly not a task for the faint-hearted – can you demonstrate various ‘soft skills’ perhaps, working under pressure and remaining calm and focused in a hectic work environment; ability to troubleshoot and problem solve in challenging situations and so on. Were you responsible for any initiatives that increased the preschool’s operational efficiency? Did you go beyond what was expected of you, and deliver exceptional results that surpassed goals and objectives?

Once you have collated all of this information perhaps consider incorporating a ‘qualifications statement’ at the front of your résumé, which is a paragraph that delivers a succinct overview of your transferable competencies and overall expertise (focused on your goal), with perhaps a bulleted list of ‘core competencies’ (again, directly related to your target.)

You may wish to include a section on “Milestones and Benchmarks” or “Relevant Achievements” and include your (quantified) achievements in bulleted statements that directly relate to management and customer service. Again, this allows the reader to view your contributions in the workplace and for the overall operational success of your employer within your specific career target.

This could then be followed by your employment history, which again highlights relevant experience and contributions within the workplace.

I hope this has provided you with various strategies to begin the development of your résumé. All the best with your career, Theresa.

Drop me a line at info@a-e-c.com.au Let me know how you go.

Annemarie

Resources & Tools to Catapult Your Career

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Want to use this article in your ezine or website?

You can as long as you include this complete copy with it:

Annemarie Cross is a Career Coach, Trainer, Speaker, Personal Branding Strategist and Author of ’10 key steps to Ace that Interview!’ She is also the founder/principal of Advanced Employment Concepts (AEC) – Career Management and Corporate Career Development Specialists offering powerful programs for people striving for career success and fulfilment, as well as savvy companies committed to building and retaining their most important asset – their staff.

A champion for her clients, Annemarie’s motto ‘Your catalyst to success’ perfectly encapsulates what she desires for everyone she and her team at AEC works with. To learn more about her book, 10 Key Steps to Ace that Interview! and sign up for more F*REE tips and solutions like these, visit the AEC site at www.a-e-c.com.au

Have a question you'd like answered in this ezine? Contact: enquiry@a-e-c.com.au

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