Article Title: Meetings Done Right
Author Byline: Philip Aust
Author Website: www.searchlogixgroup.com

Meetings Done Right

Let’s be straight; most people do not like meetings. When asked why meetings are so distasteful, the typical worker’s response often goes like this, “Don’t get me started with meetings. Our company’s meetings are a complete waste of time.” Indeed Roger Mosvick and Robert Nelson (1987) found that employees commonly dislike meetings for a variety of reasons; these reasons include the leader was not prepared, the meeting was irrelevant, and a certain group of people kept getting off the subject.

Since meetings are a must for successful companies, it is helpful to periodically review the principles of high-quality meetings. These principles include: First, the effective manager masters time. John Cragan, David Wright, and Chris Kasch (2004) recommend that meetings are purposeful and take no more time than necessary. To ensure this, a manager should distribute an agenda in advance so that employees know what to anticipate in the meeting and can prepare to participate in it.

Second, the effective manager gives attention to employee satisfaction. Meetings are excellent opportunities to boost morale. Managers should take the time to recognize employee accomplishments and seek feedback. Once a meeting has finished, a manager should send a short email reiterating what was accomplished in the meeting to reinforce its value. This is especially important for groups that meet once a week or less.

Third, the effective manager seeks consensus. Consensus occurs when employees arrive at a decision that everyone can support. Research indicates that employees are more productive when they’ve been a part of the decision making process (Keyton, 2002). Consensus works best when it develops from group interaction and is not forced by a manager. Moreover, consensus tends to encourage future collaboration. Keep these principles in mind, and your employees will benefit from, and recognize the importance of, company meetings.

About the Author:

Dr. Philip Aust is a professor at Kennesaw State University (KSU). He teaches Organizational Communication Audits, Leadership, Training and Development, and Research Methods in the Department of Communication at KSU.

Dr. Aust’s research focuses on leadership in organizational, group, and interpersonal contexts. He examines emerging leadership perspectives, messages associated with productivity and task quality, and leader performance. He has authored and co-authored book chapters and articles published in such journals as Communication Studies, Basic Communication Course Annual, and Communication Teacher.

Dr. Aust regularly conducts communication consultations for profit and non-profit Atlanta-based companies. He has worked with over 25 companies in the last three years.

Email Philip: philipaustpr@searchlogixgroup.com

Article courtesy of the Recruiting Blogswap, a content exchange service sponsored by CollegeRecruiter.com, a leading site for college students looking for internships and recent graduates searching for entry level jobs and other career opportunities.

INTERVIEW on DEMAND - removing the barriers between TOP CANDIDATES and the COMPANIES that seek them.
Hiring managers - make faster, better hires while reducing costs.
Recruiters - make more placements with more companies, faster.

Thomas Pretty writes a very informative article about migration to New Zealand and how candidates can put their best foot forward.  In his article he mentions the difficulty that differing time zones can introduce into the interview process.  New Zealand happens to be 17 hours ahead of us (we are in Atlanta on Eastern Time) and is over 8100 miles away.  Those are two big obstacles to overcome if you are trying to migrate there and need to secure employment.

Not to worry though.  Thomas suggests (and we do as well) that you try setting up a video interview.  Since he only talked about how video interviews could help with the distance problem, we surmise that he wasn’t familiar with the time-shifted video interviews that Interview on Demand offers.  Our video job interviews can help employers and candidates bridge the ‘distance gap’ and make the interview possible without having to travel anywhere near 8000 miles.  Simply plug in your webcam, and take answer interview questions that the employer has stored on our system.   Now, using our video career profile for jobseekers, you could even send a mini-interview to an employer who doesn’t even know about video interviewing.

Even if you aren’t trying to migrate to New Zealand, video job interviews and video career profiles by Interview on Demand can help you close the gaps of time and distance when you are trying to find new employment.

INTERVIEW on DEMAND - removing the barriers between TOP CANDIDATES and the COMPANIES that seek them.
Hiring managers - make faster, better hires while reducing costs.
Recruiters - make more placements with more companies, faster.

by Dan Schawbel, Personal Branding Expert

The concept of personal branding is revolutionary and has changed our perception of those around us.  People, instead of products or corporations are now being regarded as brands, sharing similar characteristics.  Both personal and corporate brands have values, identities, personalities, an image and equity.  Today, this concept has been adopted by both recruiters and applicants alike, all for the common goal of capturing the best-fit match.  The competition in both the job and college marketplace has never been more severe.  In order to alleviate this fear and threat, students and professionals have turned to Personal branding.  According to a recent survey from Korn Ferry, personal branding accounted for over 11% of getting an executive recruiters attention.  

Personal branding describes the process by which individuals and entrepreneurs differentiate themselves and stand out from a crowd by identifying and articulating their unique value proposition, whether professional or personal, and then leveraging it across platforms with a consistent message and image to achieve a specific goal. In this way, individuals can enhance their recognition as experts in their field, establish reputation and credibility, advance their careers, and build self-confidence.

The audience in this equation is recruiters, other professionals or members of your network.  In order to brand yourself, you must have some form of differentiation, so that your audience can separate you from other applicants vying for the same position.

Your personal brand consists of three elements:

• Value Proposition: What do you stand for?
• Differentiation: What makes you stand out?
• Marketability: What makes you compelling?

Online personal branding (eBranding) focus areas:

YourName.com:  Your own domain should be your first focus area because it is a collection or central location of all your work and your branding materials.  After purchasing your domain and adding pages, such as your resume and portfolio, you need to communicate the site with your audience by using marketing tactics such as word-of-mouth.  Other tactics you may use is viral marketing through direct contact with others through email and phone mediums and by submitting your domain to search engines like Google.  If you already have a blog or another website, be sure to advertise your brand domain name on it.  Connecting with people in your network is also a smart strategy to drive traffic to a newly created brand domain.

Avatars:  These small graphical elements should be a professional picture of you.  Avatars are used in a variety of different ways on the internet, but are especially concentrated in social networks, such as Facebook, Twitter, Second Life and many blog networks. Your Avatar should display your professional photo.  Corporations use Avatars to illustrate their logo’s as a form of advertising. Whether you are posting in a blog or sending an email, you want your Personal Brand to represent your true appearance. Avatars have recently been deemed the standard in portrait displays for all of web 2.0 on the internet.  After developing one, it can be leverage in almost all social media websites, which is why it’s important that you make one immediately before investing in other parts of your brand.

Social Networks:  Today, most of the population is registered in at least one social networking website, whether it is MySpace, Facebook or others.  Issues do arise from messages that are posted that have a negative impact on Personal Brands.  If you join one of these networks, be sure that you set your privacy controls, use professional pictures and moderate comments and messages.  Recruiters view these websites and may turn you away after finding out certain information. 

Blogs:  A content distribution system, that not only creates a community of people that share similar interests, but acts as its own subscription service, where your words are syndicated through emails or other websites through RSS.  Blogging is one of the most remarkable Personal branding channels because the content is personable and direct.  When starting a blog, you may register with a host such as Google Blogger or Wordpress.  The idea with blogs and your brand is to stand out through taking a niche topic and blogging about it on an ongoing basis.  Blogs consist of posts that are either written or in a video format, where you can express your interest and expertise in a given topic.  Typically, you should avoid any ideas or visuals that would give your brand a bad reputation.  Photos and video’s should be used to re-emphasize your points, as well as links to other blogs that directly connect with your topic.  Be sure to comment on other blogs, as that creates a network, where you will get more visitors and more people writing on your topic.

Podcasts:  Video content is especially useful for your brand if you have a vivacious personality in front of the camera.  In the future, resumes may be formatted into multimedia, where individuals will have to pitch their core message in 30 seconds and forward it to a recruiter.  Podcasting is useful because it highlights your overall brand, in the form of dynamic content.

Forums:  Discussion forums give you the ability to learn from others, display your brand through an avatar and for self-promotion purposes.  By participating in forums, especially ones involving recruitment, you are able to connect with others who share your interests or recruiters that may have open positions.

LinkedIn:  A networking website that allows you to connect with previous coworkers, schoolmates or new acquaintances.  Your resume should be visible, including recommendations and a core message summary.  Your network is your most powerful tool to excel in your career, so make sure that as you meet new people you connect with them through this site. [Editor’s note: Dave Mendoza of Six Degrees from Dave and Paul DeBettignies at RecruitingBlogs.com are very active LinkedIn linkers and experts.  Check them out.]

INTERVIEW on DEMAND - removing the barriers between TOP CANDIDATES and the COMPANIES that seek them.
Hiring managers - make faster, better hires while reducing costs.
Recruiters - make more placements with more companies, faster.

Many thanks to Miriam Salpeter for her guest blog….

Would you set your own broken bone?  Wire your own home for electricity?  Do you cut your own hair?  Most would say “no.”  If it is important (involving our health, safety or appearance), we hire an expert.

The same standard should apply when job seeking. Your career is one of your most crucial financial investments. Whether you are actively engaged in a search, underemployed or unhappily employed, it makes sense to consult an expert as you embark on your search for a new job.

Most people don’t welcome the idea of a job hunt.  It is hard work and may seem scary.  Wouldn’t it be nice to have an experienced ally who will help you every step of the way?  Keppie Careers’ mission is to advise, encourage and enlighten job seekers and provide a toolbox of practical tips and support. When we work together, you will overcome obstacles keeping you from making positive changes in your life. We offer confidence, clarity and know-how!

Career coaches add value on a number of fronts. Keppie Careers can help you with any of the following:

Goals assessment.   Are you at a transitional point in your career?  You aren’t sure what your next step should be?  A coach will help you identify what you want next and get you on the right path to achieving your goals.

Critique and rewrite your resume and letters.  Do you really want to face the job market with documents that are not optimized?  Often, job seekers don’t view their resumes objectively.  Misplaced modesty prevents them from incorporating their very best accomplishments.  Ignorance of a resume’s purpose (it’s a sales document, not a laundry list of things you did) precludes them from producing a top-notch result. 

Many job seekers don’t stop to consider how much money a less-than-optimal resume costs them.  If you are unemployed, how much money do you lose for every day that you are out of work?  If your resume isn’t top-notch, you may not appear qualified for the salary that you seek or deserve.  A professionally written resume will help shorten your job search and may qualify you for a higher salary.  Your return on investment in yourself can pay off substantially!

Learn how to sell yourself.  You must identify and be able to effectively describe your skills and accomplishments.  Specialized coaches not only write your resume, but help you recognize your marketable skills.  Once you know what you have to offer, your ability to sell yourself via networking and in interviews increases exponentially!

General job search skills.  Do you know how to look for a job?  How savvy is your networking plan?  Do you know where hiring managers are sourcing candidates?  Do you know how to avoid common pitfalls?  Keppie Careers does!

Interview preparation. Tell us about yourself?  What’s your weakness?  What do you have to offer?  Why should we hire you?  Do you know the answers to these and other important interview questions?  More importantly, do you know how to structure and deliver your answers to ensure optimal results?  If not, you may be wasting your time.  We all know that “time is money.”

Negotiating.  Entering an interview or negotiation unprepared will cost you.  A coach can help you prepare so you don’t lose money.

Career market knowledge.  We spend our time keeping up with the market.  We learn about new technology and approaches and stay plugged in because you don’t have the time, expertise or desire to do it.  Helping people along their career path is our passion. 

Do you want to achieve your career goals and save money?  Hire an ally for your job hunt.  An ally tells it like it is and helps you get where you need to be.  Are you committed to discovering what you have to offer an employer? If you are motivated to make a change, Keppie Careers is here for you!

Visit us online for free advice and information about our services:
 www.keppiecareers.com.  Our blog is updated almost daily: www.keppiecareers.wordpress.com.  Feel free to email us:  results@keppiecareers.com.

INTERVIEW on DEMAND - removing the barriers between TOP CANDIDATES and the COMPANIES that seek them.
Hiring managers - make faster, better hires while reducing costs.
Recruiters - make more placements with more companies, faster.

While I was wandering around the web looking for material that would benefit our readers, I came across a few articles discussing virtual interviews through something called Second Life.  Assuming it would be something very similar to video interviewing, I started through this stuff and discovered that Second Life is a 3-D virtual world where you can create an avatar (a virtual self) and have a “second life.”  So then, this virtual self can participate in a real-life job interview.  There are articles on tips for how to conduct yourself during a virtual interview and some comments on how this is a huge technological leap for businesses. 

My question is this:  Are you telling me that a serious, grown-up business is going to conduct interviews and hire its people through a video game????  You can’t be serious. 

The best argument I’ve seen so far for virtual interviews is that they enable employers to reach more potential employees and save on travel costs that typically come with regular interviews.  That’s an argument that also applies to the much better option of video interviews.  Using Interview On Demand, employers can see the actual candidate answer questions instead of a virtual being that could conceal a candidate’s true qualities.  And if you’re a great candidate, why wouldn’t you want to put your best self forward in the first place?

There’s one article on virtual interviews called “No Need to Show Up for this Job Interview.”  No kidding.  I think that about says it all.

INTERVIEW on DEMAND - removing the barriers between TOP CANDIDATES and the COMPANIES that seek them.
Hiring managers - make faster, better hires while reducing costs.
Recruiters - make more placements with more companies, faster.

Article Title: Do Your Parent’s Want to Choose Your Next Career?
Author Byline: Marilyn J. Tellez, M.A.
Author Website: http://doitnowcareercoach.info

Do Your Parent’s Want to Choose Your Next Career?

I think it’s a natural thing for parents to want to guide and influence career choices for their children.

But what if the child is now an adult and parent’s still want to influence adult career goals? What can an adult job seeker do to keep the support and goodwill of parent’s while at the same time, make their own job choices. Check out the following ideas for yourself.

1. Accept that your parent’s want to help and be involved in your career decisions. It doesn’t pay to fight them.

2. Talk over your decisions as an adult. If there is pressure from your parents, let them tell you what they want for you. (Maybe you’ve decided to be a glassblower because your father has been one. You are satisfied with this decision as the choice is truly yours, not your father’s. No more discussion is needed except for congratulations for everyone).

3. But if the job choice is a radical one from their point of view, continue the discussion with them about how you have come to your decision. Do your best to make your point clear without rancor or disappointment on your part.

4. If you parent’s don’t want to discuss your career decisions with you, don’t give up the idea that they still want you to have career success. When you have received the education, training and experience to follow your own course, let them know how good you feel about your choice, no matter what!

Article courtesy of the Recruiting Blogswap, a content exchange service sponsored by CollegeRecruiter.com, a leading site for college students looking for internships and recent graduates searching for entry level jobs and other career opportunities.

INTERVIEW on DEMAND - removing the barriers between TOP CANDIDATES and the COMPANIES that seek them.
Hiring managers - make faster, better hires while reducing costs.
Recruiters - make more placements with more companies, faster.

The progression of hiring options for businesses in America has followed the evolution of communication in the world.  We’ve highlighted some significant developments in this series–the Pony Express, the telegraph, the telephone, the cell phone, and the internet.  (The means of delivery has gotten smaller, but the area of delivery has gotten larger.  Crazy, huh?)

So, here’s the general progression of how to find the best employees in America:

*Hiring the best option out of whoever came in off the street.  Immediate results, but limited talent pool.

*Reaching out by Pony Express to get those adventurous, entrepreneurial types who had crossed the plains to make their fortune in California.   Offers and answers could be delivered in the lightning-fast speed of 10 days.  Sure, the horses were fast, but better hope your guy was still in the same place.

*Receiving inquiries and offering jobs to people using Morse Code and a telegraph from wherever a telegraph line reached.  Hiring with interpreters!

*Phone interviews.  At last, hiring managers can speak to an actual person to get a little more resume information.  Still, it’s difficult to “read” a prospective employee over the phone.

*Online job postings.  Unleashing the power of the internet to reach anyone with a keyboard, expanding the talent pool tremendously.  Exchanging job information through cyberspace.  Much faster, reaching a wider talent pool, but unreliable results.  Unfortunately, resulting in employer abuse through video resumes. 

*Video interviews.  The pinnacle of job-seeking and hiring technology.  Improving on the idea of video resumes by being employer-driven rather than desperate job-seeker driven.  A few companies starting up with some success, because it’s an idea whose time has come.

*Interview On Demand.  The latest, greatest technology in video interviews.  THE way to conduct video interviews–smooth, efficient, effective.  Interview On Demand’s video interview system is intuitive enough so that anyone can use it.  It saves employers time and money, and maximizes productivity.  It expands the talent pool to the whole world.  Interview On Demand is a global solution to an age-old problem.

And there you have it.  All the inventions, technological leaps and advances of the modern age growing, building on each other, and coming to perfection in….Interview On Demand.

INTERVIEW on DEMAND - removing the barriers between TOP CANDIDATES and the COMPANIES that seek them.
Hiring managers - make faster, better hires while reducing costs.
Recruiters - make more placements with more companies, faster.

Cell phones are everywhere.  Even 9-year-olds have them.  Cell phones have, at the same time, the capability to be the greatest convenience of your life and business as well as a source of masive irritation to others if you forget your cell phone etiquette–also in life and in business. 

But where did they come from?  Cell phones have developed as a natural progression of experiments, insights, and technological advances in many different areas.  (And how do they work?  This article explains it nicely.)

Notable dates and progressions in the history of the cell phone :

 1843 - Michael Faraday experiments to see if space could conduct electricity

1865 - Mahlon Loomis (a dentist) sent up kites with copper screens connected to the ground with copper wires to transmit messages through the air using the atmosphere as a conductor

1895 - Guglielmo Marconi sent the first wireless message (using Morse Code)

 1921 - The Detroit Police Department installed the first land-mobile radio telephone systems for police car dispatch

1973 -  Martin Cooper from Motorola placed the first cell phone call….to his rival at AT&T.  (I love that…)

 1977 - Chicago became the first city to use cell phones, on a trial basis, with 2000 users.

1983 - Motorola introduced the “DynaTAC,” the first truly portable cell phone.  It cost $3500.00, weighed 2.5 lbs., needed 10 hours to charge for 30 minutes of talk time. 

1980s - most mobile phones in the U.S. were permanently installed as car phones

1987 - over 1 million cell phone users in the U.S.

1990s - as cell phone technology developed, phones became lighter-weight and more powerful and feature-packed

2006 - over 233 million cell phone subscribers in the U.S.

Today, cell phones have progressed to camera phones, and Bluetooth technology has revolutionized it them even more by enabling hands-free use.   In the future, cell phones are expected to use holographic displays, have credit card capabilities, have mobile television reception, and more. 

Do you see the progression?  The emergence of faster, more efficient communication, one technological leap at a time.  (In the end, I’m going to get you to video interviewing with Interview On Demand….you knew that, right?)  So far, we’ve discussed:

The Pony Express

The Telegraph

The Telephone

Cell Phones

What’s next?  The internet.   

INTERVIEW on DEMAND - removing the barriers between TOP CANDIDATES and the COMPANIES that seek them.
Hiring managers - make faster, better hires while reducing costs.
Recruiters - make more placements with more companies, faster.

Who invented the telephone?  You would all answer “Alexander Graham Bell”, right?  Me, too… until I started researching for this lightly informative series on the history of communications in America.  Apparently there’s a whole mess of controversy I didn’t know about, and I bet you didn’t, either. 

The generally accepted story is that Alexander Graham Bell was working to improve the telegraph, which had been successfully in use for years but could only transmit one message at a time.  Bell’s background in music and sound inspired him with the idea that he could transmit multiple messages at the same time by using signals of differing pitch, or sound–he called it the “harmonic telegraph.”  This is what he had received financial backing for.  However, while working on the harmonic telegraph, he realized he could hear sound over a wire.  Working with his assistant, electrician Thomas Watson, he then perfected the idea and the means of transmitting sound (speech) using electrical signals.  “Mr. Watson, come here.  I want to see you” was the first thing he said. 

Here’s where the controversy comes in:  there’s a new book out this month called The Telephone Gambit:  Chasing Alexander Graham Bell’s Secret (see exerpts from the book here) that maintains that Bell stole his ideas for the telephone from Elisha Gray.  It is true that Elisha Gray filed his patent for the telephone mere hours after Bell, in February 1876.  An extensive legal battle ensued, which Bell won. 

And, there are a large number of people who claim that Italian immigrant named Antonia Meucci invented the telephone, but that through bad luck and poverty, he failed to establish a patent on it.  There’s much more detail in this article, ” and justice for all.”  It’s significant–in 2002, the U.S. House of Representatives passed a resolution endorsing Meucci as the inventor of the telephone because he had demonstrated his invention as early as 1860 and had a description of it in an Italian-language newspaper in New York. 

Whoever’s going to end up with the credit for inventing the telephone, being able to speak to someone in real time and get an immediate response revolutionized life and business in America.   Sit for just a second and really think about how mind-boggling that would have been…going from sending letters across the country by Pony Express to Morse-code-clicking with a telegraph to actual speech.  Building on that, we progressed from switchboard operators (who could listen in on your call) to party lines (so your neighbors could listen in on your call) to private lines with call-waiting to cordless phones to….cell phones!  Coming up next. 

INTERVIEW on DEMAND - removing the barriers between TOP CANDIDATES and the COMPANIES that seek them.
Hiring managers - make faster, better hires while reducing costs.
Recruiters - make more placements with more companies, faster.