Friday, December 21, 2012

Thank you for making me look good & Happy Holidays

Seasons Greetings and profuse thanks to all the printers, publishers, art directors, graphic designers, photographers, and talented others who laboured this year to make my copy look great in both printed and digital media.  You are my heroes.  Without you, I'd just be bald text. 

Wednesday, December 12, 2012

Notes from the day after I became a new woman thanks to LinkedIn


My experience:  LinkedIn seems to have converted my Profile in the early evening yesterday, and (at least to me) it still looks and works essentially the same, although less cluttered. 

My biggest, best surprise was that, in spite of LinkedIn’s advance warning that it would stop supporting Box.net Files, my Box documents still remained accessible from the Publications sections.  (I had also received a thoughtful but inadvertently anxiety-producing advance e-mail from The Box Team yesterday that walked me through new protocols for attaching my documents, even though it turned out I didn’t have to attempt them.)  I had been dreading the task of archiving all my publications all over again via a different, untried method—so yay!

How did everyone else survive the switch?

Tuesday, December 11, 2012

Today I'm a new woman thanks to LinkedIn

Late yesterday afternoon (3:55 p.m.), LinkedIn e-mailed me to say that today I'll be one of the privileged first to get a redesigned profile with "new ways to connect and build relationships" and "a new way to showcase rich content."  At the same time, they dropped the bomb that they're discontinuing apps that I've been using regularly, including Box.net Files and Blog Link.

As of 08:30 a.m. my local time, my LinkedIn Profile still looks the same as usual, so part of today's excitement will be wondering when they'll pull the switch.  Whenever it happens, please bear with me as I adapt to new protocols to stay in touch.  Like so many other new developments in social media, this one should prove interesting for all of us.  I'm for anything that will help me communicate better with other people.

Just in case you're curious, below is quoted LinkedIn's e-mail to me from yesterday.  At my end, I'd be curious to know if anyone else got the same message, or else a different one along the same lines:

Hi Victoria,
On December 11, 2012, you'll be getting the new LinkedIn profile, which has a simplified design, provides deeper insights, and surfaces new ways to connect and build relationships. You'll also be one of the first to preview a new way to showcase rich content on your profile -- like presentations, videos, documents, and more.
Now there are more ways than ever to tell your professional story on LinkedIn, and we're excited for you to try them out. As we roll out these changes, we'll also be streamlining our app offerings, so the following LinkedIn apps will no longer be supported on the homepage or profile as of December 11:
  • Box.net Files
  • Blog Link
You can find out more about these changes on our Help Center.We hope you like your new LinkedIn profile!
Thanks,
The LinkedIn Team

Monday, December 10, 2012

Behavioural Interviewing 101

Many progressive human resources managers favour behavioural interviewing.  It works on the premise that the most accurate predictor of future performance is past performance in similar situations.  Accordingly, it structures questions to determine whether the candidate has actually demonstrated the behaviours, knowledge, and skills required for a job, often beginning questions with phrases like "Tell me about a time ..." or "Describe a situation ..."

So, for example, if you're looking for a strong people motivator, you might say:  "Tell me about an occasion when you took the time to share a subordinate's achievement's with others."  Or if you're seeking problem-solving or time-management skills, you might ask respectively:  "In your last job, what problems did you identify and solve that had been overlooked previously?"; or "How do you set priorities when scheduling your time?  Give examples."

"How" questions like the last one, requiring candidates to explain in detail how they did something, can be especially revealing, because appropriate answers demonstrating experience, skills, and knowledge are nearly impossible to fake.

Saturday, December 8, 2012

Mentoring + HR management + automation = great customer service


Further to my last post on mentoring, I appreciate small-business/start-up consultant Greg Meyer’s keep-it-simple take on the same subject in his recent article on improving customer service for WordOfMouth.org.  Mr. Meyer writes:  

Find out what high-performing team members are doing and ask them to teach that idea to the rest of the team.”

His other sound ideas include:

“Finding the right people who are capable of delivering great service is much easier than training people who don’t want to deliver above-and-beyond service.”  

My additional two cents on human resources:  your own workplace observations and behavioural interview questions will show you respectively which prospective job candidates and which of your staff members are most capable of providing your clients with excellent service.  

(For more information on behavioural interview questions, please see my following post dated 10 December/12.  http://vicg8hr.blogspot.ca/2012/12/behavioural-interviewing-101_10.html)   

Mr. Meyer also advises:

“Be open to the idea of new tools. Often the team member who delivers the most WOW is someone who has discovered a way to automate their everyday tasks so that they can focus on the end goal of delighting customers.”

 You can read the full text of his article, “A guide to becoming a WOW-maker”, at:

Friday, November 23, 2012

Resources on the crucial topic of mentoring


After my blog post of 27 October 2011, I’m happy to see that Deborah Corn of PrintMediaCentr is dedicating a blog series to the incredibly important topic of professional mentorship, in this case from a printing-industry perspective. http://vicg8hr.blogspot.ca/2011/10/please-share-your-experiences-regarding.html

In the first installment, Chris Echevarria, Customer Experience Center Manager at Océ North America, outlines her experience with a formally instituted corporate mentorship program and such basic mechanics as how many mentors to have at once (she says several are feasible) and how often to contact them (at least once each quarter works for her).  http://printmediacentr.com/who-needs-a-mentor/

In case the importance of mentoring hasn't crossed your radar screen, an on-line blurb for David Clutterbuck’s 2004 book Everyone Needs a Mentor: Fostering Talent in Your Organisation spells out just how essential it is:  “Mentoring is the most cost efficient and sustainable method of fostering and developing talent within your organisation. Talented employees can be stretched to perform even better by exposure to high performing colleagues. Experience can be passed on more effectively one-to-one. Employees from groups that are under-represented in the organisation can be supported and developed by talking to others who have overcome similar barriers.”  http://books.google.ca/books/about/Everyone_Needs_a_Mentor.html?id=4OYegB6lbQAC&redir_esc=y

The many other practical resources on mentoring available on the Internet include:


  1. Kristin Burnham’s 2011 article for CIO, examining why women aren’t reaching their full potential through mentorship and offering tips on how they can find and initiate fruitful mentoring relationships. http://www.cio.com/article/692472/LinkedIn_Tip_Why_You_Need_a_Mentor_and_How_to_Find_One
  1. Amy Barrett’s 2007 article for BloombergBusinessweek Magazine on Why You Need A Mentor:  http://www.businessweek.com/stories/2007-02-25/why-you-need-a-mentor
3.    Reg Pirie’s 2000 take on the nature of an effective mentoring relationship for CanadaOne:  http://www.canadaone.com/ezine/aug00/mentors.html

4.  I’ve also posted a few of the many printed and e-books available on this important topic to the Reading List on my LinkedIn Profile at:  http://www.ca.linkedin.com/in/vicg8                     

Tuesday, November 13, 2012

Printer MPP Joe Dickson says Ontario's workforce needs foreign professionals

Although yesterday's post discusses immigration from the federal government's perspective, Joe Dickson, Ontario Member of Provincial Parliament representing the riding of Ajax-Pickering and President of Dickson Printing Ltd., says that integrating foreign professionals into the workforce is a priority for his provincial government as well.

When we spoke at length about a year ago, Mr. Dickson (shown at left) said Ontario needs to place more qualified foreign professionals in sectors of the economy that are experiencing chronic vacancies for skilled positions.  His fear is that, if the government does not take steps to alleviate the situation, "companies here will have a manpower shortfall or even lose the work to other parts of the world."

For details, see the third- and second-last paragraphs on page 33 of my article "Popular MPP Printer" in the December-2011 issue of Printaction.   
https://www.box.net/s/ndbitjxxd9l2au5e6y7b

Monday, November 12, 2012

Immigration Minister says new system makes it easier for foreign professionals to have credentials recognized in Canada


Further to my post of 30 September 2011, in a report in Saturday’s Globe and Mail, Prime Minister Stephen Harper confirmed that his government is making “profound” changes to Canada’s immigration system in anticipation of escalating competition from other developed nations for skilled immigrants. 
http://vicg8hr.blogspot.ca/2011/10/hot-hr-election-issues.html
Canada currently admits between 240,000 and 265,000 new permanent residents a year.  For decades it has been one of only about half a dozen countries worldwide to allow immigration.  (The others include the United States, Australia, and Israel.)  But now other industrialized countries are opening their doors to immigrants to compensate for the reduced growth and aging demographics of their domestic populations. 
In the face of this rising global competition, Mr. Harper says Canada must improve its process for targeting and selection to ensure that it attracts sufficient numbers of immigrants, as well as people with the most desirable skills, expertise, and investment capacity. Mr. Harper describes his Conservative government's changes to the immigration system as shifting from a system that merely receives applications and processes them on a first-come-first-serve basis to a more proactive one that chooses people based on the country’s priorities and how much the applicants can benefit Canada. 
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/politics/canada-needs-to-get-competitive-to-attract-skilled-immigrants-harper/article5179369/ 
http://www2.macleans.ca/2012/11/12/fundamental-change-on-immigration/
Mr. Harper’s statements come soon after three further developments affecting Canadian immigration practices:  The first is that Canada's Minister of Citizenship and Immigration, Jason Kenney (shown at right), announced earlier this month that the backlog of skilled immigrant applications, which has clogged the system for years, is declining rapidly and will be eliminated by the end of 2013.  Mr. Kenney said about 100,000 applications are still in the system, down from 640,000 just a few years ago.
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/story/2012/11/02/pol-kenney-backlog-skilled-workers.html
The second development occurred last week, when Mr. Harper’s government launched a review of the federal Temporary Foreign Worker program, which brings some 200,000 temporary workers into Canada each year from foreign countries.  The review was prompted by controversy following the government’s decision to hire hundreds of Chinese nationals through the program to work in British Columbian mines.  Criticisms of the program include that it lets foreigners take jobs away from Canadians and creates a second class of labourers that puts a downward pressure on wages.  (In October, unemployment in Canada remained at 7.4 percent, following two consecutive months of increases.)

The third development, also announced earlier this month by Mr. Kenney, is a revamped points system to assess people who apply for immigration.  Schedule to take effect in 2013, the revised system will place new emphasis on having employers invite immigrants into the country and place them in jobs on arrival.  It also includes pre-assement of overseas applicants based on their education, prior Canadian work experience, age, and English or French language skills. The Conservatives’ current immigration system already treats temporary workers from foreign counties who have obtained Canadian work experience as one of the best prospects to enlist as new immigrants, because they have already proven they can integrate into Canadian society and meet the country’s labour-market needs.  

To date, discussions sparked on LinkedIn by the Globe’s Saturday report seem to emphasize the disparity between the public image of Canada as a land of golden opportunity for newcomers versus the reality that skilled immigrants may encounter upon arrival in this country, when they may find themselves severely underemployed.* 

Mr. Kenney says the recent immigration reforms were devised with exactly this disparity in mind: "I don't think we're being true to our reputation as a land of opportunity by inviting engineers to come here and come and drive cabs, or medical doctors to come here and be night watchmen or convenience store clerks," he comments. 
http://www.cicsnews.com/
http://www.cic.gc.ca/english/department/media/releases/2012/2012-08-17.asp
http://2vancouver.com/en/blog/new-skilled-worker-skilled-trades-and-canadian-experience-class
http://www.immigrationmatters.co.uk/canada-to-reduce-skilled-worker-immigration.html

  For an example, LinkedIn members might search and review the discussion started on Saturday by Nicole Jelly, a global HR strategist and cross-cultural expert in Calgary, Alberta.  Mr. Kenney is the Member of Parliament for Calgary Southeast.

Friday, November 2, 2012

Growing numbers think LinkedIn is a good bet


If you haven't registered on the professional social network LinkedIn yet, now might be a good time to do it.  https://www.linkedin.com/reg/join  Business news reports released yesterday and today say third-quarter profits reported by LinkedIn Corp. are twice as high as analysts had estimated, thanks to growing levels of interest from participants, advertisers, and employers.  Besides increasing its advertising rates and nearly doubling sales from its hiring services, LinkedIn has also become a favourite with investors, according to an early-morning blog post today by ABC News blogger Richard Davies. 

Davies notes LinkedIn’s track record has been an exception among Internet companies that have gone public in recent years, some of which are trading well below their initial public-offering prices (IPO).  By contrast, LinkedIn’s stock price has more than doubled since its May-2011 IPO.

Thursday, October 11, 2012

6 tips for handling whiners


Sorry it took me so long to produce this second installment to my post of 21 August/12, when I cited research that showed too much time spent listening to someone else’s complaining can damage your staff’s brain cells.  I feel bad for leaving you hanging this long, especially since practical advice exists that may help you not merely cope with a longwinded complainer but actually enable you to bring out the best in the whiner.

By whiner, I am referring specifically to someone whose complaints are neither constructive nor even useful as a therapeutic (if passive-aggressive) form of stress relief.  Although such whiners may possess a legitimate sense that things should be different and want to make things right, they have no idea how to effect improvements.  So as a result they feel helpless and, instead of taking action, they whine.

If faced with this type of whiner, the best thing you can do is diminish the whiner’s helplessness by taking the following five positive steps:
  1. Listen to the whiner’s complaints (even if you don’t want to and at risk of your own brain cells).  Write down the main points to prove to the whiner that you are listening and also help you recognize the complaints again if the whiner tries to recycle them.
  2. Because whiners tend to complain in vague generalizations, you'll probably need to take charge of the conversation by asking clarifying questions to make the whiner pinpoint the specifics of the problem.  If your whiner is unable to be specific, suggest that he or she go away and gather more information.
  3. Give the whiner something to look forward to by setting a time for a subsequent meeting, either to discuss the problem further or (better) when s/he will get back to you with possible solutions.
  4. Also to redirect the whiner’s thinking toward a solution, ask the whiner what s/he wants.
  5. If the preceding steps fail to produce positive change, know when to draw the line.  If the whiner reinitiates the same cycle of complaints, clarify that talking about problems without solutions is a poor use of everyone’s time and shut him or her down.
 What not to do:
  1. Agree or disagree with whiners.  Either alternative simply encourages them to keep whining.
  2. Try to solve whiners’ problems for them.  You need their participation.
  3. Ask why.  Whiners will construe the question as an invitation to start over from the beginning.
I have adapted the above five tips and three don'ts from the book ““Dealing with Difficult People:  24 Lessons For Bringing Out the Best In Everyone” by Rick Brinkman and Rick Kirschner.  In personal practice, I have found all these instructions useful in helping me cut to the chase quickly when faced with another person’s morass of complaints.  But I have to admit, in my less diplomatic moments I've also had success in deflecting whiners by simply informing them that they are compromising my brain cells.  That's my sixth tip.

What techniques work best for you?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SGAUPDENuZs

Tuesday, August 21, 2012

Workplace complaining harms staff's brains

Evidently, workplace griping isn’t just bad for morale.  It actually impairs your staff’s brain function.

According to Trevor Blake, author of “Three Simple Steps:  A Map to Success in Business and Life”, neuroscientists have learned that people who spend too long listening to someone being negative are apt to behave in the same way.  Additionally, people exposed to 30 minutes or more of negativity lose neurons in their hippocampus, the part of the brain used for problem-solving.
http://www.inc.com/minda-zetlin/listening-to-complainers-is-bad-for-your-brain.html

Friday, May 18, 2012

The latest advice on dealing with difficult people

Hara Estroff Marano’s article in this month’s Psychology Today, called “The High Art of Handling Problem People”, acknowledges that dealing with difficult people is a special skill—and one that is becoming increasingly necessary in both professional and personal life.  
           Because difficult people come in a variety of forms, much of the article is devoted to describing the different modus operandi of individuals who are either hostile, rejection-sensitive, neurotic, or egoic.  Yet the author points out certain threads that are common to difficult interactions:
"Ever wonder how an encounter goes so quickly awry? Doubt your own perceptions? Feel thrown totally off balance by another person? Find yourself acting crazy when you're really a very nice person? Manipulation comes in many forms: There are whiners. There are bullies. There are the short-fused. Not to forget the highly judgmental. Or the out-and-out sociopath. But they often have one thing in common: Their MO is to provoke, then make you feel you have no reason to react—and it's all your fault to begin with! Feeling deeply discounted, even totally powerless, while having to jettison the original aim of an interaction is a distressing double whammy of social life—and a cardinal sign you're dealing with a difficult person. No, it's not you. It's them. And it's the emotional equivalent of being mowed down by a hit-and-run driver."
             As a self-help tool, the author recommends you stay composed in the face of unreasonableness to enable you to figure out exactly what species of difficulty you're facing before attempting to deal with it.  Further practical advice includes a list of “7 Ways to Defuse a Difficult Encounter” by Vancouver physician and PT blogger Susan Biali.  Is anything crucial missing from the list?

Tuesday, April 10, 2012

Canadian economy logs best job-creation month since recession

     Following months of stagnant or falling employment, Canada's economy just logged its biggest surge in jobs since before the last recession — adding 82,300 workers to the labour force in March 2012—or six times more than the previous seven months combined.  This unexpectedly strong employment report last week from Statistics Canada overturned a few prior months of modest employment reversals and was our biggest monthly jump since September 2008, just before the global recession.  The new jobs were broadly spread through multiple industries and even included modest gains in manufacturing and construction, two industries that have suffered recent set-backs.
     Bank of Montreal deputy chief economist Douglas Porter warned Canadians not to expect the same dramatic job gains going forward, noting that the unusually warm weather last month might have pushed forward some seasonal work.  The public sector's March gain of 21,000 workers also seems unusual, when both the federal and Ontario governments introduced budgets last week with spending restraints on the numbers or wages of public servants.  Yet Porter affirmed that the March employment gain "really does show that the job market has broken out of its funk."
     Still more good news:  the Bank of Canada’s quarterly survey of senior management from 100 representative firms, conducted over four weeks in February and March, found that business optimism in Canada is rising sharply, bringing better expectations for sales, hiring, and investment.
http://www.680news.com/business/article/349644--optimism-grows-among-canadian-firms-expectations-for-hiring-positive

Wednesday, March 28, 2012

New study says women make better bosses

     According to a new study from Spain, employees think women are better bosses than men. 
     Reasons cited include that women managers tend to instigate more individualized employee feedback, more democratic decision-making, and more workplace channels for interpersonal communication.  The study’s author, Eduardo Melero, an economist and business professor at the Universidad Carlos III De Madrid, said in a statement:  “Women managers seem to be more inclined to use these types of practices, individually, as well as promoting them among the rest of the management team.  And as such, a management team with more women could be more effective.”
     Increased communication between management and employees could well yield such important benefits as enabling the company to make more well-informed decisions based on employee feedback and improving morale among staff who will feel their contributions matter more if management listens to their opinions.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/news/men-vs-women-managers
http://www.businessnewsdaily.com/2241-women-bosses.html

Monday, February 13, 2012

More reasons why sales is a potentially lucrative career for introverts

        Following last Tuesday’s post, I grew so fascinated with the potential of introverts to excel at sales that I did some more digging. My research turned up several more key strengths that could contribute to their sales ability, including superior composure and self-control, as well as excellence in building long-term relationships. Evidently, it might also help if the introvert possesses a strong belief in the value of the product or service s/he is selling. 
http://saleshq.monster.com/sales_careers/articles/98-an-introvert-in-sales

Tuesday, February 7, 2012

Why should you consider hiring introverts for sales jobs?

        Yesterday New-York-City-area sales trainer Paul Castain started another interesting LinkedIn discussion with the question: “Is sales an extrovert's profession or can an introvert do quite nicely too?” Comments thus far have emphasized the advantages that introverts bring to sales, including better listening skills, better at focusing attention on the prospect and asking questions, and better at handling disappointment. What seems to be emerging is a useful shopping list for hiring sales staff.

Thursday, January 26, 2012

Employers are hiring more for attitude, rely more on networking & staff referrals

        Recently Mark Murphy, an American researcher, leadership trainer, and author of Hiring for Attitude (among other books), discussed why many new hires fail quickly, why soft skills are so important now, and how the hiring landscape is changing.
        His research tracking 20,000 new hires found that 46 percent of them failed within 18 months. It also determined that, when new hires failed, 89 percent of the time it was for attitudinal reasons and only 11 percent of the time for lack of skill. The attitudinal reasons included lack of coachability, incompatible temperament, and low levels of emotional intelligence and motivation.
        Murphy comments:  “It’s not that technical skills aren’t important, but they’re much easier to assess (that’s why attitude, not skills, is the top predictor of a new hire’s success or failure). Virtually every job (from neurosurgeon to engineer to cashier) has tests that can assess technical proficiency. But what those tests don’t assess is attitude; whether a candidate is motivated to learn new skills, think innovatively, cope with failure, assimilate feedback and coaching, collaborate with teammates, and so forth.
        “Soft skills are the capabilities that attitude can enhance or undermine. For example, a newly hired executive may have the intelligence, business experience and financial acumen to fit well in a new role. But if that same executive has an authoritarian, hard-driving style, and they’re being hired into a social culture where happiness and camaraderie are paramount, that combination is unlikely to work. Additionally, many training programs have demonstrated success with increasing and improving skills—especially on the technical side. But these same programs are notoriously weak when it comes to creating attitudinal change.”
        Murphy’s findings coincide with many of my own ideas about the importance of soft skills and the need to pinpoint these elusive but all-important qualities in job candidates.  For example see:  Getting a grip on mission-critical “soft” skills:  5 simple steps http://www.printlink.com/resources_insight054.php
or Assessing Job Candidates Beyond the Technical Skills
http://www.printlink.com/resources_insight051.php
        Murphy predicts that, when hiring, employers will place an increasing emphasis on attitude in 2012 and beyond:  “Between the labor pool from China and India and the fact that there are so many workers sitting out there unemployed, we can find the skills we need. The lack of sharp wage increases in most job categories is further evidence of the abundant supply of skills. Technical proficiency, once a guarantee of lifetime employment, is a commodity in today’s job market. Attitude is what today’s companies are hiring for."
        He also says companies are finding their best people through employee referrals and networking rather than the regular channels. “They have started to realize that the high performers they already have fit the attitude they want and that these are the people they should be asking to help find more people just like them.”
        Forbes blogger Dan Schawbel adds:  “Given that data, it seems like candidates should be networking in every way possible—including social networking.” 
http://www.linkedin.com/newsactionBar=&articleID=5567224830140354576&ids=djwQcjgUczAQcPoQejsRdPoRdiMTcPATejgUc3kUc3oPczkTdzkRb3gTcjgOdPkUe3gRdzcRejkSdjkIdzsRd3kPc3gNc3cUd38OdPoRdiMSd3kMej4RdPsMe3AOdjoTdzkR&aag=true&freq=weekly&trk=eml-tod2-b-ttl-1&ut=2CEy-Xc8GKDB41