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5 Reasons Why You Don't Have Friends At Work

As humans, we need some form of social interactions (some of us more than others). However, we all do need and thrive on the simple act of connecting to people.

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3 Steps To Create Your Own Career Development Plan

If you're pondering how you're going to get where you want to be in your career, there are some simple steps you can take that will help you create your own career development plan.

Let's not be confused by the word “simple." Sometimes the simplest of concepts or steps can be tough to do because they require some intense thinking and effort. Yet, your think time and effort are an investment in your future and career happiness, which make it all very worthwhile to plan your career growth today.

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7 Steps To Power Your Way To A Promotion This Year

Is your goal this year to get that promotion? Good for you! Related: How To Be The Employee Your Company Wants To Promote A promotion doesn’t just magically happen because you want it to or because you feel like you spent enough time in your current position. Promotions take place because of demonstrated ability to perform at the next level. (Feeling stuck in your job? Watch this free webinar to learn how to bust out of your career rut.) If you really want that promotion, you need to earn it. Here at seven steps to power your way to that promotion:

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Are Your Work Expectations Realistic?

Expectations. We all have them. Our expectations motivate us and drive us to do things both good and bad. We might expect a great time at a party or expect to get bored at grandmas. We have all sorts of work expectations. We have expectations of our peers, our boss, our company, and even our customers. RELATED: 5 Tips For Keeping Your New Job Our expectations serve us like a yard stick where we kind of measure people both ahead of time and after an event. We think we know what to expect of others and ourselves, so we check to see if all of that expectation is missed or met. What happens when our expectations are continuously missed? We turn grouchy, to start with. If our expectations are continually abused, it can become the catalyst of unrest and great unhappiness. Depending on your position in the company, you can bear down on the source of your missed expectations with unrelenting focus. We hate to be disappointed. The question is – Are your expectations realistic or are you a control freak? It’s good to be good, but it’s annoying to work with someone who wants to be perfect. Besides, it’s just not possible, so you could be unrealistic and also be a real pain in the backside.

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10 Tips For A Powerful Elevator Speech

An elevator speech (ES) is becoming an important item in the toolkit of most people. It doesn’t matter if you are a job seeker, business person, or gainfully employed professional, you need a powerful elevator speech (ES) to extend and support your personal brand. Related: 4 Steps For Developing A Winning Elevator Pitch What you say and how you say it are equal parts to delivering an ES that will either cause people to take notice of you or go to sleep.

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Career Management: Are YOU Lazy?

Warning! I’m about to speak in code. We like to think of ourselves as:
  • “Not interested in making big money”
  • “Not overly ambitious”
  • “Focused more on life than work”
Code for all these excuses is “I’m lazy.” Related: 6 Career Management Hacks That Will Get You Ahead Being lazy is something we don’t like to admit to ourselves, much less to our own mother (who will love us no matter what, except when being lazy). We will substitute other words and rationalization for our behavior. You think we can’t tell, but we can. You’re lazy, and second to bad body odor, no one really wants to be around that, even if you’re charming. (OK, maybe if you’re charming, but only then.)

Career Management Help

If you're in the ranks of people of whom I’m describing, you need to pay attention to what I’m about to share. Someone needs to give it to you on the chin. You may have reached a point in your adult life where you realized you don’t care if you get ahead, excel on the job, get a promotion, or even much of a salary. Lazy is about effort, and you discovered you simply didn’t want to put in any. You were willing to forego these things as a trade off. As a lazy person, you have learned to do things to try to hide the blatant truth about yourself. You have tried to look like you didn’t care if others passed you by. Perhaps you even attempted to look like those things were too materialistic. The great thing about rationalization is that it seems to sound good and even logical to some extent. To you perhaps. I’m here to expose your ugly truth. We really can tell. As much as lazy people think they've hidden the truth about themselves, at some level the rest of us know. We pretty much let you keep thinking that we can’t see what you’re all about. You didn't ask “does this rationalization make me look lazy?” Here is some of the other code this signifies. It says that while you might truly just not want to do anything, it says you haven’t checked in to life. You don’t get it. We’re at our best when we are productive and contributing. We’re even better when we’re so passionate about our work that we can’t wait to get to it again. It says you might be afraid to try or might not be able to stand the failure that comes with striving. What you’re missing is that it will make you feel great about yourself. Not because you kept up with other people or met some type of social standard. You would feel great because you had something you strived to achieve and did it. As a co-worker, you aren't our first pick to work with. You can’t be trusted. If I know you’re lazy, I’m not sure what you will or won’t do. Many times, in your attempt to look like something you aren't, you may inflate what you know or will do. Most of the time you don’t know what you will or won’t do. Your rationalizations are filed under “Ignore.” You've preordained your outcome because of your “lazy-speak.” We can all see through this and because, even if you’re charming, what good is working with someone you can’t trust? The best people I've had a chance to work with are generally running faster than I am. Where does this leave us? If you’re lazy, you’re missing out on a big chunk of life. I recognize some people think there is a magical dividing line between work and life, but I’m here to say the line doesn't exist. This is your life or at least a big part of it. Stop trying to fool yourself. The effort you think will be so painful will be the best time of your life, if you just let it. Try some career management. Fall in love with your work. This post was originally published at an earlier date. Photo Credit: Shutterstock

3 Examples Of Great Personal Branding

Personal branding can be a real stumper for many people. It’s hard to look at yourself objectively, especially when it’s to think about your assets. (Psst! Can’t get hired? Watch this free tutorial.) With personal branding, you are not only thinking about your assets, you are thinking about what you want to be known for. I believe a great way to help understand something is to define it by giving good supportive examples. Before I launch into giving examples, let’s recap the definition of personal branding. Personal branding is essentially what you are known for and what people seek you out for. If you are the “go-to” person for graphical design, then your personal brand is all about graphical design, even if that is not your job. I once knew a finance analyst who, in his own words, was an “Excel God.” He knew Excel (software) at a depth that no one else did. He knew it so well it was almost his position in the finance organization, because he not only was the “go-to” person, he was a critical asset to that group because of it. You can add to that definition what you want to be known for, because your personal brand is also aligning the image people have of you to where you are headed. You don’t become president without helping people see you (and your personal brand) in that role.

Great Personal Branding Examples

Let’s look at some career people, their personal brand and what makes them stand out. #1 Profile: Marketing Person with 30+ years in a variety of industries and company sizes
  • Personal brand concepts: “No-limits marketing,” leverage and innovative nature, traditional marketing and online social marketing, no limits to creative marketing solutions, “practiced hand” that creates solutions by adjusting the solutions to each company’s mission, product, strategy and industry.
  • Stand out: Many people get nervous about crossing over to other industries, but this person puts it out there as an asset. They are clear about the range of marketing they can deliver and why they can effectively adjust to each company.
#2 Profile: Career Coach, Author and Speaker
  • Personal brand concepts: Internationally renowned, recognized for advancing the needs of job seekers and enhancing training strategies for career coaches, recognized as the 1st “motivational” career coach in the US. Works with job seekers, career coaches & job coaches worldwide.
  • Stand out: The concepts almost jump off of the page with energy. No wonder this person is a top rated motivational career coach, because they help you understand that is what they are known for; and that’s to get you excited!
#3 Profile: Event Planner, Program Coordinator, Project Manager
  • Personal brand concepts: Master organizer with an eye for detail, meticulously create and execute special events. “You name it, and I will plan it with confidence and enthusiasm.”
  • Stand out: This works because you truly understand that this person is organized, detailed oriented and bubbly, all at the same time. You really get the idea that you would enjoy working with this person while they were pulling together your event.
If you are unclear about your personal brand, just pay attention to what your co-workers seek you out for. That is a good place to start. To further develop your understanding, study these examples, even if none of them are exactly what you do. Hopefully, they will help prompt you to “get it” about your brand so you can communicate it clearly to others.

Are you ready to get HIRED?

Watch our free tutorial “8 Ways You’re Being SHUT OUT Of The Hiring Process” with career expert J.T. O’Donnell to find out what’s holding you back from getting hired… and how to fix it! WATCH NOW This post was originally published at an earlier date. Photo Credit: Shutterstock

How To Extend Your Personal Brand With An Elevator Speech

More and more business owners and job seekers are catching on to the idea and necessity of having a great, impactful elevator speech. After all of the thought and time creating them and practicing them, many people want to get more use out of them than simply waiting to meet someone new. Re-purposing your elevator speech and extending your personal brand is a great idea. RELATED: Need some tips for your personal brand? Watch these tutorials! Here are some great uses for your elevator speech:

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