How to Develop Effective Work Relationships

How to Develop Effective Work RelationshipsHow to Develop Effective Work RelationshipsYou can damage your career and work relationships by the actions you take and the behaviors you exhibit at work. No matter your education, your experience, or your title, if you cant play well with others, you will never accomplish your work mission. Effective interpersonal work relationships form the cornerstone of success and satisfaction with your job and your career. How important are effective work relationships? They form the basis for promotional opportunities, pay increases, goal accomplishment, and job satisfaction. The Gallup organization studied indicators of work satisfaction. They found that whether you have a best friend at work welches one of the twelve key questions asked of employees that predicted job satisfaction. Without a friend at work, work satisfaction deteriorates. What Happens When You Dont Play Well With Others? A supervisor who worked in a several-hundred-person compa ny quickly earned a reputation for bedrngnis playing well with others. He collected data and used the data to find fault, place blame, and make other employees look bad. He enjoyed identifying problems and problem patterns, but he rarely suggested solutions. He bugged his supervisor weekly for a bigger title and more money so that he could tell the other employees what to do. When he announced that he was job hunting, not a single employee suggested that the company take action to convince him to stay. He had burned his bridges all along the way. And no one will have a good word to say about him when an employer who is checking references comes their way. The Top 7 Ways to Play Well With Others at Work These are the top seven ways you can play well with others at work. They form the basis for building effective interpersonal work relationships. These are the actions you want to take to create a positive, empowering, motivational work environment for people 1. Bring Suggested Sol utions to Problems to the Meeting Table Some employees spend an inordinate amount of time identifying problems. Honestly? Thats the easy part. Thoughtful solutions are the challenge that will earn respect and admiration from co-workers and bosses. Your willingness to defend your solution until a better or improved approach is decided on by the team is also a plus. 2. Dont Ever Play the Blame Game You alienate coworkers, supervisors, and reporting staff. Yes, you may need to identify who was involved in a problem. You may even ask the Dr. W. Edwards Deming recommended question what about the work system caused the employee to fail? But saying that its not my fault and publicly identifying and blaming others for failures will earn you enemies. Throwing other employees under the bus, either privately or publicly, will also create enemies. These enemies will, in turn, help you to fail. You do need allies at work. Remember this if you want to accomplish your goals and dreams. 3. Your Ver bal and Nonverbal Communication Matters If you talk down to another employee, use sarcasm, or sound nasty, the other employee hears you. We are all radar machines that constantly scope out our environment. When you talk to another employee with a lack of respect, the message comes through loudly and clearly. In one organization, a high-level manager once asked this question, I know you dont think I should scream at my employees. But sometimes, they make me so mad. When is it ever appropriate for me to scream at the employees? The answer? Never, of course, if respect for people is a hallmark of your organization- which it should be, and it is in massively successful companies. 4. Never Blind Side a Co-worker, Boss, or Reporting Staff Person If the first time a coworker hears about a problem is in a staff meeting or from an email sent to his supervisor, you have blindsided the coworker. Always discuss problems first, with the people directly involved who own the work system. Also call ed ambushing your coworkers, you will never build effective work alliances unless your coworkers trust you. And without alliances, you will never accomplish the most important goals for your job and career. You cannot do it alone, so treat your coworkers as you expect them to treat you. 5. Keep Your Commitments In an organization, work is interconnected. If you fail to meet deadlines and commitments, you affect the work of other employees. Always keep commitments, and if you cant, make sure all affected employees know what happened. Provide a new due date and make every possible effort to honor the new deadline. It is not okay for an organization to just quietly allow deadlines to slip by. Your coworkers, even if they fail to confront you, will think less of you and disrespect your actions. And, no, dont think even for a second that they didnt notice that the deadline passed. You insult them if you even consider this possibility. 6. Share Credit for Accomplishments, Ideas, and Contr ibutions How often do you accomplish a goal or complete a project with no help from others? If you are a manager, how many of the great ideas you promote were contributed by staff members? Take the time, and expend the energy, to thank, reward, recognize and specify contributions of the people who help you succeed. It is a no-fail approach to building effective work relationships. Share credit deflect blame and failure. 7. Help Other Employees Find Their Greatness Every employee in your organization has talents, skills, and experience. If you can help fellow employees harness their best abilities, you benefit the organization immeasurably. The growth of individual employees benefits the whole. Compliment, praise, and notice their contributions. You dont have to be a manager to help create a positive, motivating environment for employees. In this environment, employees do find and contribute their greatness. They will always remember that you were part of bringing it out of them. Tho se interpersonal work relationships are cherished. If you regularly carry out unterstellung seven actions, you will play well with others and build effective interpersonal work relationships. Coworkers will value you as a colleague. Bosses will believe that you play on the right team- with them. Youll accomplish your work goals, and you may even experience fun, recognition, and personal motivation. And how can work get any better than that?

Ways to Highlight Transferable Skills on Your Resume

Ways to Highlight Transferable Skills on Your ResumeWays to Highlight Transferable Skills on Your ResumeTransferable skills are the types of skills you can apply to any industry you work in. Regardless of the industry or job, behauptung skills work for you on a resume. For example, if you worked in a company where you interacted with customers on a daily basisand you are trying to land a job in sales, there may be some transferable skills.While you might not be familiar with work experience in sales, you do have the ability to talk to and empathize with customers. You have the ability to discuss products, talk about solutions, and genuinely make customers feel confident in the product you are going to sell.Being able to communicate, listen, and make customers feel confident are transferable skills that can carry across many industries, especially in todays customer-centric economy. So, what are some ways to properly highlight these skills?1. Identify transferable skillsFirst, you mus t identify skills to see if they will be transferable at your new job. Here are some of the most common skillsCommunicationProblem-solvingOrganizingComputers and devices (we all use them)TeamworkListening and learningDo you see what applies to you from this list? Think about the previous jobs you had held and see what skills above helped you achieve results. Be honest with yourself and ask others what they think as well. Ask yourself how any of the above skills helped you in the past.2. Create a summary section and skills sectionOn your resume, write a brief summary in which you highlight your transferable skills. Make it easy for hiring managers to find your transferable skills because they will not be looking at resumes for very long on average about six seconds.In your skills section, add your strongest transferable skills accompanied with a brief description of how these skills are applicable. Here is an example of a skills section with transferable skillsSkillsCommunication Spe nt the past few years working with global teams communicating with staff in Europe, North America, and Asia. Excellent writing skills for explaining concepts and tasks in a concise manner.Time management Tasked with finding new technology for helping employees work smarter and increase productivity.3. Combine your resumesThe combination resume layout helps list your previous orts. Employers will have the chance to identify previous roles that match the description of the position they are looking to fill.4. End in StyleFinish off your resume with a list of hobbies or interests that reinforces the strength of your transferable skills. For copywriters and bloggers, you can explain how much you love reading the works of well-known authors or thought leaders.Changing careers should not feel stressful. If you write a resume that promotes your transferable skills, you will soon find your dream job

Command your money how to create a budget that works

Command your money how to create a budget that worksCommand your money how to create a budget that worksA budget is an estimate of your income and expenditure that covers a particular period of time, typically a month. Most people receive their income on a monthly basis and as a result, they allocate the amount they plan to spend out of their income on a month to month basis.Follow Ladders on FlipboardFollow Ladders magazines on Flipboard covering Happiness, Productivity, Job Satisfaction, Neuroscience, and moreThere are other people that receive wages on a daily, weekly, or bi-weekly basis. The same concept still applies. Budgeting allows you to properly allocate your income so that you can fulfill the various categories of your monthly expenses. Some of the monthly recurring expenditure for most people includesHousingFeedingTransportation, andUtilitiesThere are other categories of expenses that you may need to expend on a quarterly or annual basis. This may includeHomeowner insuran ceProperty TaxesHome warranties, etc.To win with your money, you need to ensure thatyourproperly allocate your income into all the different categories of your expenses.A budgetletyou have control over your money since it allows you to allocateyourmonthly based on your interest and priorities.MONEY EQUATIONThere are two sides in the equation of money management.There is incoming side which covers all the money you earn either infasson of salary, wages, royalties, rental income, dividends, and earnings from business investment.The other side of the equation is the outgoing side, which deals with the money you spend. And this includes but not limited to money you spend on food, clothing, housing, fun activities and so on.The secret to winning with your money is to make sure that your outgoing is always less than your incoming. That way, you will have profit, and you can invest and make money work for you.If you desire to make more money and increase your lifestyle, then you must figur e out how to make more money.Do not fund your lifestyle with debt, it is not a winning strategy and it is not sustainable.BENEFITS OF BUDGETINGYour budget helps you to allocate your income into the different spending categories that you have each month. If you comply with your budget at the end of each month, you will derive the following benefitsYou will be in control of your money.You have the necessary line of sight to where your money is going at the end of each month.You will be able to develop and meet your money goals.You will be able to budget for surplusYou are able to save for unexpected events.You will know when you are overspending and avoid potential debt problems.You will position yourself for wealth creation.BURDEN OF DEBTDebt is a drag on your life and it can hold you back from fulfilling your desires. Debt is an obligation to the past which denies you the benefits of the future. The following are some of the issues that may result fromdebtburdenStress and constant w orry (Health related illness)Inability to plan and take risks.Limited options and choices in decision making.Dissatisfaction with life.ResentmentBUDGETING TOOLSThere are various tools that you can use for budgeting purpose. Here are some tools to get you startedExcel spreadsheetMintAcornsYou Need a BudgetPocketGuardThey all serve similar purpose. They let use synchronize your bank account and credit cards with the apps so that all your income and expenses are tracked with the apps.Ensuring that you comply with your budget is the key to winning.Keep your commitments to yourself.HOW TO SET IT UPSetting up a budget is not a difficult process, all it requires is just some level of organization from you. If you do not already know all your monthly expenses, you will need the following to get started.Bank account statement (3 months)Credit card statement (3 months)The purpose of this is to help you get organized and able to know your past expenses. It also helps your budget to be as accur ate as possible.Next, we break down your monthly expenses into categories. To make it easy, I have come up with three main categoriesEssentials This cover your expenses that are absolutely necessary for each month. Example includes Rent, Food, Transportation and utilities.End Game This category includes monthly allocation towards the future. It includes savings in your retirement or college savings for your children (if you have any). This category provides you safety security.Extras This category covers expenses that you make to derive some form of satisfaction for your immediate needs. This category provides you comfort. Example includes Personal spending for eating out, vacation, and charity donation.RULE OF THUMBTo win with your money, you have to budget saving as expense.Dont save what is left after spending, spend what is left after savings.Use your saving to build your investment portfolio and create passive income.If you are in debt, you should put your debt under essential s.Before you start building wealth, you should have at least 3 months of your monthly expenses saved as an emergency fund.BUDGETING TEMPLATEBelow is a budget template for John Smith. This is for reference only. It will not work for everyone. The purpose of this is to act a s a guide for you so that you can set up your own budget.90-DAY CHALLENGEIf you want to be on top of your financial game and control your money, it is time to set up your budget. You might have a budget already, but you are not keeping to it, now is the time to become more intentional and win with your money. Here is a 90-day challenge that will help you to keep track of all your expenses and income and set up a working budgetSTEP 1 FIRST 30 DAYSKeep tabs on all your expenses to the last cent.Write them down (excel spreadsheet preferably). If you do not have a computer, go the old fashion way and write them in a note pad.STEP 2 FIRST 60 DAYSContinue with the 30-day activities.Put all your expenses into categories (Essentials, End Game, Extras)Evaluate your financial goal and adjust your spending appropriately.STEP 3 FIRST 90 DAYSContinue with the 60-day activitiesEvaluate your earning. Are you budgeting for surplus or deficit?Evaluate if you need to cut some spendingEvaluate if you are saving enoughCreate your financial goalsSTEP 4 Repeat the 3-stepsPractice makes perfect.Let it become your habit.COMMITMENTThe goal of budgeting is to help you win with your money. In order to make this realistic, you need to stay committed to the steps highlighted in this lesson. Your commitment to your budget is ultimately what will help you to put your finances into order and help you properly allocate your income to ensure that you are in control of your money.You are now in charge. The only thing you need now is your commitment to your budget and use it control where your money goes at the end of each month.Here are some steps that will help you commit to this program and achieve the resultDevelop the rig ht mindset This is to ensure you avoid the myth associated with budgeting.Make the budgeting process a habit Ensure you track your daily expenses. Be persistent.Be ready to make some little sacrificeFocus on your goal There will be times you will feel like giving up, you may not see results earlier on in the process, but focusing on your end goal will help you stay engage every month and will help you improve your financial condition.Hold yourself accountable You work hard for your money. You are accountable for how you spend it. If you spend it wisely, you deserve the credit. If you misuse it as well, you take responsibility and make amendments.Celebrate small victories You just paid off a credit card debt. Give yourself a pat in the back, you should be proud of yourself and you can find a way of celebrating the progression you are making.Forgive yourself You will not be perfect after the 90-day challenge. You will still make mistake, but you should quickly forgive yourself, learn from your mistake and avoid them in future.Final ThoughtsSuccess requires discipline. Budgeting is a process of becoming a discipline manager of your money. Stay committed and you will win.This article first appeared on Winners Way.