Angst Corner

6 Ways to Keep Your Employees From Jumping ShipWith layoffs declining to a number lower than that of employees quitting, companies are going to have another issue to face in the coming years. This is especially true for companies that have taken advantage of the recessionary employment situation in the handling of their own employees.I know people who have lowered their employees' salaries because "they have to keep this job," or have added on work duties to an already stretched workforce because "they don't have the option to leave, since there are no jobs available."Mr. Employer: This is changing fast. According to the latest data from LinkUp.com, there are more openings than ever. There are jobs out there, and companies must realize that a few years of pent-up demand is about to be unleashed.So, if you are an employer, what can you do now to stem the tide of employees shouting "I Quit!?"Six things come to mind.1. For one thing, as quickly as you can, make meaningful, if small, adjustments to salaries and work...

How to Face Down Your Fear of Career ChangeChanging careers to pursue your passion means thinking bigger than your immediate box and stretching yourself beyond your current circumstances. When you do that, you’re 99.9 percent guaranteed to bump up against fear at some point. It just comes with the territory.Most people will do just about anything possible to keep from feeling that fear. It’s one of the biggest obstacles keeping people from taking serious steps towards their dreams. And that’s unfortunate because, rather than a hideous monster under the bed waiting to attack as soon as they venture out of their cozy comfort zones, that fear can actually be an enormously valuable asset.Fear comes in two varieties: limiting fear and productive fear. Limiting fear stops you dead in your tracks. Productive fear shines a light on potential dangers so you can assess how to minimize or eliminate them. And sometimes the only difference between the two has to do with what you do when you feel that fear.Just like the ability...

Topics You Can't Discuss at WorkYou spend a lot of time at your job. Maybe most of your waking hours. Ideally, your boss and coworkers become your friends, which is nice.But be careful! Never forget that you can’t totally let your hair down with work friends the way you might with family, old schoolmates, your book group, your buddies, or your cat/dog.Why? For one thing, the workplace is a public place and public rules of decorum prevail. For another, a lot of subjects--even ones commonly discussed or ones you see referred to on TV--can turn around and reflect badly on you. They can besmirch your reputation or damage your chances of promotion. Sometimes they can get you fired. At the very least they can cause coworkers to avoid or dislike you.So, check out these 40 topics that shouldn't be discussed on the job. Some of them are no-brainers. Heck, most of them are. However, all of them have actually been brought up in the workplace at one time or another. You’ve probably heard them yourself. (Note: The last seven...

If you're job hunting you're surely aware of the most egregious and common no-nos: showing up for the interview ten minutes late; answering your phone during the interview; handing over a resume riddled with typos; using a silly-sounding E-mail address; failing to demonstrate you've researched the employer; bad-mouthing your last boss; neglecting to follow up. You're not doing any of that, are you? Of course not.But you may not have considered some of the less-discussed, under-the-radar issues. Give this list a look and ask yourself, "Do any of these sound like me?"1. You have unreasonable expectations. Everybody wants the perfect job. But if your criteria are too high, if you're being too demanding, you may well remain unemployed. Nobody wants to be told to compromise, but the fact is that much of life involves just that, at least temporarily. Analyze your wants and needs. Which are must haves? Which are negotiable? Which can be put on hold?2. You're relying too much on one search technique. Maybe you are only...

How to Build Self ConfidenceIn conversation with a journalist a few days back, I was asked what tricks I knew that would help build self confidence – he said that he had been discussing this with a number of other people, in preparation for an article he was writing on the subject. I suggested to him that self-confidence “tricks” are like trying to stop a damn bursting with a sticking plaster and that, no doubt, he had been at the receiving end of a lot of the usual nonsense that passes for conventional wisdom when it comes to building self-confidence.Why would you not have absolute and unshakeable confidence in yourself anyway? If you don’t believe in yourself no one else will. The problem with attempting to build self-confidence in the face of daily factual evidence to the contrary will leave you ending up feeling worse about yourself, your qualities and your capabilities than you did in the first place. For example, if you’re afraid of public speaking, psyching yourself up before you take the stage by telling...

Time Management: Focus on Only What is ImportantDo you have enough time to do all the things that you really should be doing today? Or, like most people, do you find yourself labouring under a mountain of “to dos”, never getting through it and then find that you simply haven’t done some of the things that you really wanted to or should have done? Are you a slave to others’ demands at work? Are you trying to juggle job and family responsibilities and finding that you’re getting neither done properly? Are you one of these people who has to take home work at the weekend to “catch up”?One of the biggest problems with the modern pace of life is that we don’t seem to have enough hours in the day to get everything done. One of the most frequent questions that I am asked, when I propose that people slow down, “smell the roses” and give themselves the space and time to be inspired is “are you seriously suggesting that I slow down when I don’t even have the time to do what I’m supposed to be doing at the moment?” Yes, I...

Do You Have The Courage To Be An Entrepreneur?Years ago, I heard the statement "the fastest way to personal growth is to open your own business." Thirteen years after opening my first business, I can promise that statement is true. Like many people who are self-employed, I came out of the corporate world, where I was used to having support staff, creative people around me to bounce ideas off of, and the big bosses over me to handle the heat. I also had janitorial staff to clean the office and technical support staff to handle an errant computer.When I left all that to open my own business, I soon discovered that my support staff, creative people, big bosses, janitorial staff and technical staff was the person I saw when I stared into my mirror. My business was brand new and very small, one room in an office building. I had to handle everything, whether I was "trained" to handle it or not. I had to discover what I did well, what I enjoyed the most, what I hated to do, when I could afford to hire help, and what...

Are You in or Out for Change? Building Team Spirit In a NutshellThe inception of a team is as indispensable as creating a work of art. It needs careful planning and a lot of preparation. Every team member will need to have the ability to flow with constant change in his or her work lifestyle. Every day is a great day and a new opportunity to inject vitality into your team and organization and have it become a natural way of working.The results of your efforts in building team spirit will not show in an instant. You need a persistent coordination with all members of the team so that all problems will be manageable and bearable for everyone.So here are 5 fundamental ways to build team spirit.1. Unlock your inborn creativity. Learn how to solve any problem, overcome any obstacle, and achieve any goal at any given time. The use of imagination and resourcefulness is a must-have in any working experience. The drastic and dramatic changes we face these days always results in the kind of working life we lead.2. Be prepared...

Cheat Sheet : REAL Appreciative Team Building Activities To Transform Teamwork fast!REAL Appreciative team building is the new rage for smart business. Gone are most of the games, people used to call "team building activities". Smart companies are now looking for sustainable results, beyond team motivational talks, that they know don't last.Appreciative Inquiry in Team BuildingThe Appreciative Inquiry based approach supports the trend towards a more positive focus on strengths and what is working - rather than the old style problem solving approach.RESILIENCE is also becoming a major need in companies today as competition increases globally. REAL leadership is required to guide, empower and inspire teams to greater performance in a sustainable way.But, in the past, most leaders and managers have had no simple way of getting these effectively into their organisations. From our past Appreciative team building experience, we have distilled our wisdom gained into a few simple steps.Make sure you incorporate your steps...

Building and Organizing a Virtual Team – Strategies that WorkIn order to survive in the increasing demands of the workloads that our management offers, we need to keep ourselves from worrying a lot and be more focused on what are the effective ways of building confidence in a team.Team building involves goal setting and a game plan. A virtual organization must always begin a strategy plan with the goal. You cannot hit a target that you don’t have your eyes clearly set upon. So setting goals is where the productivity begins. When you have a goal, you can then immediately proceed to the next step of team building.The contemporary management scene also requires that team building strategies should include the understanding of virtual organization and community. Virtual organizations are built so that logistical, personnel and critical resource issues can be addressed. The use of telecommunication and other computing technologies have become the defining ground of any virtual organization. Taking this into consideration...