Thanks, Denise for your comment. I have also found that my clients seek to know what they are good at and if asked, cannot list many strengths. Assessments are very helpful and I use them for a person to know better their personality strengths and core passions. I love your two comparison pictures of when we are working within our key strengths or otherwise.
A friend, an owner of a business, wrote me about some of the challenges she is having as an owner and hiring manager. She wrote,
“My #1 challenge in finding good employees is finding those who have technology skills…Some people looking for work can barely turn on a computer. They MUST seek IT training to be employable in today’s.”
Where can a person go for training? If you’re a self-learner, there are great books. If you like classroom style, many community colleges and business such as the tcTraining Center offer classes. I learned a lot of my skills through volunteering and in a few jobs.
How did you learn your IT skills? I’d love to hear from you!
Peter Weddle has written a new book “Career Fitness” and in chapter 3, I really appreciate what was written. Peter states, “To be your personal best is to draw on the special talent and wisdom with which you were born. It is to give expression to the self-defined and self-created excellence that resides within you and each and all of us. It is to enjoy 
your NATURAL your unique occupational mastery-the workplace activity at which you excel and in which you feel the most challenged, purposeful, happy and complete. This mastery is your calling, and it is the only work that isn’t onerous, dissatisfying and, ultimately, harmful to the health of your career.
Many of us never get to work at our NATURAL. In fact, we don’t even know what it is. That’s why there has been so much focus, in recent years, on helping us to achieve “work-life balance.” The term implies that work is a negative activity that has no intrinsic value other than a paycheck which is almost always less than what we want or need. Our jobs cannot lift us up, but can only drag us down, so we must find a way to counteract them. We must balance our experience in the workplace with activities that occur someplace else and do have enduring value. And, sadly, survey after survey confirms that balance is exactly what a growing number of Americans are struggling to achieve in their lives.”
What is your ’special talent and wisdom with which you were born’? What activities do you enjoy and feel most challenged, purposeful, happy and complete?
I’d enjoy sitting down with you and discussing with you your key strengths, ’special talent and wisdom’! I have a two-session package called “Strengths Identification.”
“You’d think that people making $200K+ per year would have tremendous job satisfaction. They’ve been selected for challenging roles and are well compensated for their expertise. But a recent ExecuNet 
survey reveals, disturbingly, that 48% of executives with an average salary of $221K are dissatisfied, and 52% think they’ll leave their company within the next 12 months,” Louise Kursmark wrote in a recent blog.
There are several reasons employees look to leave. One of the reasons could be a wrong fit. What are hiring managers looking at when they hire a candidate? Are they hiring employees that fit well the position? Are hiring managers seriously looking at a candidate’s key strengths, interests, core values, life purpose, identity and personality trait that fit well with the position and company culture?
How does a hiring manager know about the six key areas of a person mentioned in the previous paragraph? To successfully hire, the process normally takes a lot of time including observation by the candidate of the position, being able to ask questions of the employees and completing assessments. The hiring manager needs to ask first-rate questions, talk to people that know the candidate, conduct a variety of interviews, review completed assessments, etc
If you have questions on leadership or career management, write me and I’d be glad to answer them in a future blog.
I just read another article about an increasing number of hiring managers
and recruiters googling potential candidates. Laurie Smith wrote in a recent blog, “It behooves us all to constantly monitor what is floating around in cyberspace about us, and proactively work to ensure good press.” (see http://careerhub.typepad.com
Each time you enter information in a website, respond to a blog, or are quoted in a website, information may be entering the web that will show up on you when googled. So, be careful! Many candidates do not proceed with candidates in the hiring process because of what showed up when googled.
Kirsten Dixson encourages all of us to google ourselves on a weekly basis so that if digital dirt shows up, we can take steps to cover it up. For more information how to cover digital dirt on yourself, be reading upcoming blogs or email me at terri@summitviewcareercoaching.com.
Luladey B. Tadesse, of the News Journal wrote a detailed article about target job searching. I agree with what she wrote.
“Once you figure out who does the hiring, don’t be surprised if that person doesn’t immediately return your phone call. On average, it takes eight follow-up phone calls to set up a meeting with the right person….”
Tadesee quoted Kate Wendleton, president of a national career counseling organization (The Five O’Clock Club), “Not using a computer, not being tech-savvy is not an option…Instead of just applying for the posted job opening, the best strategy to finding a job is to first figure out where you want to work, target that company or industry and then contact the hiring manager.”
“Most jobs are not advertised,” said Wendleton. “Only about 6 percent of all jobs are filled through advertisements.”
What are some questions you have about finding a career job? I’d love to answer your questions. Also, for more information, see The News Journal.com.
Since the #1 reason most people quit their jobs is because of conflict with their boss, I see Conflict Management as an important leadership and career issue.
We all tend to handle conflict predominately with one out of five methods. The first method I wrote about last week (under leadership) that some people tend to use is ‘competing.’ Competing is when one person is assertive and uncooperative so that their concerns are satisfied at the other person’s expense. There are proper times for us to handle conflict with the competing method. (For more info, look under my last blog on leadership for last week.)
The second method I’m sharing now is on ‘collaborating.’ Collaborating is trying to find a win-win solution that completely satisfies both people’s concerns. 
The benefits of collaborating are:
Costs…
There are appropriate times to choose to handle conflict with the competing or collaborative method. I will be writing on the last three methods of conflict management in my next leadership blogs. If you have any questions or comments, please write me a comment!
This information comes from “Introduction to Conflict Management” by Kenneth W. Thomas. I will be giving a presentation on Conflict Management and these five methods on December 4th at the Chamber of Commerce, Business & Education Track.
