Personal Coach – Types of People You Will Have to Deal with at Work

Every single day we all encounter ‘types’. There are different types of mobile phones, cars, mushrooms, and even people. While you certainly have a choice when it comes to the type of smart phone or car you’re going to buy, there’s no way you can choose what types of people you’ll work with. If you are all set for your first day on your very first job, you may as well, learn the different types of colleagues you’re likely to encounter.

The Attention Grabber – these are the people who are willing to do everything jus to catch attention. One day you’ll see them wearing neon colors, and another day you will see them with really high and noisy heels. These people could be a distraction, so all you’ve got to do is ignore them.

The Slacker – this is a person who chooses to be busy with many things except for work. Although these people are generally harmless, you just have to be careful not be like them. Also, having a slacker in your team could be a curse, as he or she could be the reason you will have to work late for a project.

The Flatterer – you will eventually meet someone who won’t get tired of praising your hairstyle or your attire. We all love to be appreciated and flattered, but sometimes you’ve got to ask yourself why this person always has something good to say to you.

The Overly Competitive – in any workplace, competition is important as it encourages people to work harder and perform better. But there’s a slight difference between being competitive and being a bully. If you encounter a person who would be willing to hit you below the belt, make sure you don’t get involved in his game. Be competitive, but just don’t overdo it.

The Hot-Tempered – this person is usually the loudest in the room, especially during meetings. He finds it hard to accept when people go against his ideas. You can deal with this type of person by separating the attitude from the person. Don’t think this person love arguments. Instead, be more understanding, but never get intimidated.

The Gossip Girl – this doesn’t have to be a woman, because men tend to love gossips too! This type of people never runs out of stories about the lives of other people in the workplace. You have to be very careful with this kind of people as they are capable of wasting your precious time.

How happy you can be in your job greatly depends on the kind of relationship you have with your colleagues. While you have to make an extra effort to reach out and be friendly with others, you have to be wary of how they may influence you and affect your work. If you’re finding it hard to get along well with your office mates, having a personal coach will be beneficial to you.

Personal Coach Tips on Becoming a More Effective Communicator at Work

Whatever industry you are in, it is a must that you have great communication skills. No matter how good you are technically, not being a good communicator may still lead to your downfall in a job interview and this will also have a significant effect on your being successful in your career. Thus, it is crucial that you develop the right attitude and appropriate skills towards communicating with people.

If you want to get along well with your colleagues and give a positive impression to your boss, here’s what you should do to improve your communication skills:

#1 Don’t just hear what people are saying. Listen.

Many of us are terrible at listening. It often seems too hard to keep our mouths shut so we could listen to what another person is saying. Instead, we tend to interrupt, do something else, or assume that we already know what is going be said. To be a good listener, you have to be able to focus well on the speaker. Stop whatever it is you’re doing and wait for the other person to finish before you give your response.

#2 Don’t ignore non-verbal communication.

A person’s body language says a lot, and it is important that you understand what is not being said. Likewise, you should be aware of your own non-verbal communication. How you listen, look and move while the other person is talking says a lot about your thoughts and feelings about the person talking.

#3 Know what the preferred means of communication in the workplace is.

People are different even in terms of how they want to communicate with others. Some prefer emails, while others are more comfortable talking either on the phone or personally. It would be a smart move on your part to get to know your colleagues more as far as their preferred method of communicating is concerned.

#4 Always think about your tone.

One big challenge in communicating via social media or email is knowing the tone of the person sending the message. You can easily be misinterpreted as someone who is pushy and always angry. Thus, it is important to avoid using exclamation marks so the reader would not assume that you’re upset.

#5 Rephrase what you’re being told.

Saying again what your boss or coworker has said is a good sign for them that tells how you’re trying to listen and understand what’s being said to you. Plus, this is a good way for both you and the person to clarify anything that could be confusing.

Effective communication is a type of skill that you must practice continuously to improve. By being a good communicator, you give yourself a bigger chance of becoming successful in your chose career path. If you have no idea how to develop such skills, working with a personal coach is highly recommended so that you can have expert guidance in acquiring and enhancing the skills necessary to communicate well with others in the workplace.

Want A Higher Salary? Use These Tips from a Personal Coach

Did you know that in general, employers are often more than willing to pay more for the right experience and education? Are you also aware that you can actually earn double the amount of what you’re making if you are to go in a bigger company? These are just two of the best negotiating points you have that you should point out as you have a performance review or perhaps request a promotion.

If you think you deserve a higher pay than what you are currently getting, here are some things you should emphasize when you speak to the HR.

a. Number of years in the business.

It is common knowledge that the more experience you have, the higher the pay you should expect. You can point out that you have more experience than what is required in the position you are holding. Take note, however, that with too much experience, you may turn out to be overqualified for the position.

b. Educational attainment

How your educational background matches the requirement of the job has a significant effect on how much you will be offered. Also, the kind or quality of education you got can affect this. Thus, if your educational attainment is higher than what’s required, you definitely deserve to receive higher.

c. Performance assessments

This is a vital factor when you are being considered for a promotion or pay increase. If your performance reviews show positive points about how you work, this should give you hope that you’re going to get a pay raise.

d. Professional certifications and associations

In most companies and organizations, great value is given on an employee’s certifications and associations. If you don’t have such certifications yet, then you should make an effort to work towards attaining one.

e. Shift differentials

There are particular jobs that require employees to work even at the most unfavorable times. When working outside the normal work hours, an employee is eligible for a higher rate.

f. Recommendations

Getting a recommendation from your boss is a big boost in your chance to receive a higher salary. Although it seems common or ‘given’ for bosses to recommend their staff for promotion, many actually don’t bother to do it. Thus, it is important that you develop a good working relationship with your boss if you want to get his support when you need it later on.

Typically, an employee would have to wait to be offered a promotion or a pay raise, but you can also be proactive about it by making a request for a higher pay or a better position in the company. Any career or personal coach would also advise that before you do this, make sure you have prepared whatever documents are necessary for you to be deemed deserving of a bigger salary.

Career Planning and the Importance of Smart Networking

When it comes to doing a job search and career planning, it is important that you do networking the right way. Basically, there are two types of networking – bumper car networking and smart networking.

Bumper car networking happens when you just show up at an event or a social function and meet someone with whom you chat about different things. You then give out your business card and end the conversation being hopeful that you both are going to meet each other in the future.

Meanwhile, smart networking is about building relationships and not just contacts. This is the kind of networking you would want to do as this is the more fruitful and beneficial one. Below are tips you can use as you try to have meaningful conversations with people who may eventually be helpful to your career.

1. Be ready. Always be prepared with a couple of openers you can use when you meet a variety of people. Being ready with your lines will prevent you from fumbling for words when you’re in front of someone already.

You could perhaps ask what brought them to the event, or what they think about the presentation.

2. Come up with a topic to talk about.

One of the reasons why many people fear having small talks is that they have no idea what they should talk about. Well, the truth is that there is just so much to talk about, and the problem is that you don’t know how to start talking about something. Thus, make a list in your head of the things you think will be interesting for the people you are about to meet.

3. Be attentive and a good listener.

After you have given your opening statement, patiently wait for the response. Never rush the person to answer you or end whatever it is that they are saying. Show that you are interested to hear what they are saying.

4. Find something you have in common.

Once you have heard the other person’s story, that would be a good time for you to share some thoughts and experiences of yours. Ideally, you want to mention something that you both know or understand. This way, you can build a bond that may eventually be the reason for the two of you to keep in touch in the future.

5. Have a good ending.

If you think it would benefit you to keep in touch with that person, then by all means express it. You could even invite him or her to have coffee with you some time soon.

Being prepared, having an agenda, and being sincerely interested in meeting people are the ingredients to effective and smart networking that would help you gain relationships rather than mere contacts. These are the people who may soon play an important role in your career planning and success.

Career Coaching Tips on Dealing with Boss Problems

Are you in a situation where it seems like there is no other way you and your boss could work well together? Well, this doesn’t necessarily mean you literally hate each other; but you just feel that things could be a lot better between the two of you. Quitting your job and looking for a new one won’t make things right, so the best you can do is try to figure out how your employer-employee relationship will be better. You can consult a career coaching professional also if you need help in fixing issues with your boss.

The following are some tips on how you should deal with your boss so your career will not have to suffer:

1. Get to know your boss more.

Keep in mind that bosses are all different in so many ways, just as no two individuals are totally the same. You may have worked for another manager or supervisor in the past whom you think had the ideal traits of an effective boss, but this doesn’t mean your present boss should be like him or her. For you to avoid clashing with your boss, you have to figure out what he is expecting from you. It would be good also to know how he likes presentations to be made, or even how he wants his coffee.

2. Never avoid your boss.

Many of us tend to avoid interacting with people who are in higher positions. The problem is that limiting your contact with your boss could lead to loss of respect and trust on both parties. Needless to say, lack of communication results in more problems, especially misunderstandings.

3. Be professional and don’t bad-mouth.

It is so tempting to speak ill of your boss in front of your coworkers, but this is a clear sign of lack of professionalism and maturity on your part. Whatever disagreements you may have with your boss, it is a must that you handle it with care. Express your concerns to him so he would know where you’re coming from as well.

4. Look at the positive side of things.

If you don’t like your boss, it becomes easy to feel that he doesn’t like you either. Thus, you will feel sort of paranoid every time you hear him making comments about your work. Being on the negative side will bring nothing but negativity, and is a real career killer. Always be reasonable and have perspective when dealing with your boss.

While it is true that your boss plays an important role in your career advancement, it is still up to you to make your relationship with your boss work to your advantage. It’s not an easy task, of course, but getting some guidance from a career coaching professional will make a really huge difference.

Are You Creating Your Own Job Stress that May Affect Your Career Planning and Advancement?

When it comes to the idea of work-life balance, we tend to focus primarily on finding ways to make our job less stressful. Many of us believe that reducing the stress we get from our job makes our life better. This is good thinking, of course, but the question is always how you could make your job not stressful. How do you know which aspect of it gives you stress anyway? Is it how you do your career planning? Is it the people you work with? Your boss perhaps? Or your own pursuit of career advancement?

What many of us don’t realize is that they are doing things that create the very stress they want to get rid of. Thus, if you don’t want to suffer any more job stress, you must first know what’s causing them. Listed below are some common tendencies workers have that lead to more stress at work.

1. PROCRASTINATION

If you’re a person who is likely to wait until the last minute to do something important, like to complete a task, it’s no surprise you’re often stressed out! There’s nothing really wrong with waiting, especially if you are given so much time to do an assignment. The problem is that you can never know what other projects or tasks will be assigned to you that will keep you busy for some time. Also, it is possible that the resources you need are not available anymore when you’re about to do your task.

What to do: Do what you have to do the moment you’re asked to do it.

2. OVERWORKING

If you’re really confident about your skills and you tend to take on more than you can actually handle, you’re giving yourself something to stress about. Of course it’s fulfilling to do everything, but it won’t be any fun if it turns out giving you lots of stress.

What to do: Prioritize your work and don’t bite more than you can chew.

3. OVERREACTING  

If someone asks you to do something, do you feel like you have to do it immediately? Stress can be the result of too much pressure, especially if you think that everything you’re asked to do is urgent! You’ve got to learn how to choose which tasks require your immediate attention.

What to do: Ask your supervisor when the assignment is due, and then check your schedule so you may prioritize work accordingly.

4. LACK OF SELF-CONFIDENCE

Many of us feel like they have no right to speak up to the management about anything. While it is often the case in workplaces, it is still important that you know when to speak up and when to not.

What to do: If you feel that you’re being given more work than you can take on, try to approach your immediate supervisor and seek some advice.

Although stress can never be totally eliminated, there are ways you could reduce it so it won’t affect your quality of life, career planning, and career advancement.

Be Who You Want To Be: The 5 Steps in Managing Your Personal Brand Online

We live in a world where social media is impacting everyone’s life as well as our career and everything that goes with it.  The competition in the labor market is rigid, so how do you get ahead among your fellow competitors? As long as you will be able to create a significant and impressive personal brand it doesn’t matter if you are a fresh graduate who is on a job hunt, an employee who wants to grow professionally or someone who wants to start a business venture.

Although social networking is available to everyone, you still need to be a responsible user and use it to your advantage especially in managing your online reputation or personal career brand. Remember that when you are using social media, your online image will generate other people’s personal and professional perceptions and opinions of you. Your employers and clients may be able to search for your profiles in Facebook or twitter to find out more about you so make sure that they will like what they are about to see.

In order to achieve your career goals through social networking; creating, keeping and improving your personal career brand should be a part of your long-term career plan. In order to put this plan into action, you also need to keep a professional presence in every social media site you register to.  Having a hard time managing your personal brand?  Worry no more because we have identified the different steps to enhance your social image and manage your brand online. Here are the following:

1. Be smart in your posts; before you post a photo, a document or write anything on your profile, make sure that these will give you positive and impressive image. Never allow your clients or followers to make negative comments about your services or products for the world to see; use a suggestion box instead. Make sure that you provide an excellent service all the time because one wrong move can ruin everything you have worked hard for.

2. Improve your privacy so that people outside your circle will not be able to post any unwanted photos or post anything damaging to your profile’s professional presence.

3. Review your online data daily as well as your circle’s posts to ensure that everything looks perfect.

4. Monitor your profile in various angles; see how it is viewed by people from outside your circle. Check if you can easily be searched by using Google alerts or online ID calculator.

Using social networking to manage your career brand takes a lot of work and effort on your part but it is all worth it because nothing spreads information faster than social media. This career management example should be taken seriously because if you make uninformed decisions and false judgments, then your online career can be ruined. Be who you want to be; manage your career with the help of social networking.