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. 

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?

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

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.

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:

http://wordofmouth.org/blog/a-guide-to-becoming-a-wow-maker