“I think luck is the sense to recognize an opportunity and the ability to take advantage of it.  Everyone has had breaks, but everyone also has opportunities.  The man who can smile at his breaks and grab his chances gets on in life.” - Samuel Goldwyn

 We can create our opportunities from the many challenges we face everyday.  The following article will give you the secrets to creating more opportunities in your career:

How to Recession Proof Your Job: The Ten Secrets to Creating Career Opportunities in Any Economy!

By Ed Sykes

Economic times constantly change and organizations adapt to these changes. For you to find career success, you must be pro-active about your job. What are the career secrets of those who soar to the top in their careers no matter what the economic environment is in the world?

The following are ten career secrets you can use to “recession proof” yourself and find career success no matter what the situation is:

1. Find Out What Your Organization Needs for Career Success - Invest the time to investigate and understand your organization’s mission, goals, and values. Your organization may be facing challenges and the person who can tune into what the organization needs to be successful and provide the solution can write his/her own career success ticket. (Read the rest of the article at Opportunities)

Creating Synergy in Your Company

Human synergy takes place when the conjoined efforts of one or more people who are working toward a common goal exceed the sum of their solitary efforts. An efficient facilitator works to accomplish typical goals by promoting synergy. Employers can catalyze synergy by creating an office environment that acknowledges and respects the talents of each worker.

Creating synergy involves acknowledging the views of every employee. Instead of taking a “majority rules” route, employees should look to achieve unanimity. This path will take more time but the group will see that each person plays a part in reaching an optimal decision.

Every person has distinctive strengths and important qualities that are needed by the group as a whole. Employees should be encouraged to increase their skills in the areas in which they naturally excel.

Also, group members should be encouraged to look after each other for the right guidance and validation so everyone can take part in cooperative conversation. The facilitator should direct the group to move together instead of just taking a hierarchical approach.

The group members should reward each other for the qualities they like to see, such as speed, effectiveness, creativity or any other significant factor that contributes to the project. However, there should be a balance between the needs of the group and group members.

The group should learn to deal with external threats and road blocks so the members can determine the competition and develop cooperation. Building the group to overtake a certain obstacle is an action that requires unified work. A work force that has synergy flowing in a professional environment requires cooperation between individual workers. Everyone should reap the benefits only if everyone learns to function together.

A synergistic environment is more than just a bunch of people working in the same place at once since that would just be labor. A synergistic team uses all of their efforts and energies in an innovative way by giving duties to every person that are most suitable for individual skills. No employee succeeds completely on his or her own so synergy is made to use many talents to achieve one goal that cannot be achieved individually. The resources found at BusinessInsurance.org have all the right products that will ensure the security and success of an individual or company.

“Profit in business comes from repeat customers; customers that boast about your product and service, and that bring friends with them.” – W. Edwards Deming

Get to Know Your Customer Day is January 19th.  In these challenging times, it is extremely important that we know and understand our customers so that we can take of their needs.  When we achieve this, we achieve the competitive edge in the marketplace.

The following is a customer service article that will help you know your customer better and be in tune with their needs:

During our recent online poll, we asked the following question:

What upsets you the most when receiving poor customer service?

Eighty percent of the poll participants said the “I don’t care attitude” of the person serving them upsets them the most.

Businesses lose billions of dollars of revenue each year because customers feel the organizations don’t care about their business enough to make an effort to keep them. It takes five times more effort to win over a new customer than to keep an existing customer.

Then why does this happen? No training or poor training has a lot to do with it.

Here are five secrets to showing your customers you really do care about their situations when interacting with them:

1. Listen! – Take the time to listen to the “pain” the customer is trying to share with you. There is a reason why we have two ears and one mouth. Listen for the content and not the method of communication the customer is using. Use active listen skills such as

• Nodding your head
• Leaning forward to show interest
• Saying “I hear what you saying,” “I see what you mean,” or “tell me more”
• Stop doing something else and devoted all your attention to listening.
• Look at the customer
• Be patience and not interrupt the customer before adding your thoughts

 Read the rest of the article at Get to Know Your Customer.

“The real art of conversation is not only to say the right thing in the right place, but to leave unsaid the wrong thing at the tempting moment.” - Dorothy Nevill

Time and time again I hear people matter-of-factly use words or phrases that distract, detract, and deflate their message. Is it any wonder their message is misunderstood or not well received? When we choose to use verbal faux pas, instead of communicating clarity and confidence, we create confusion and mistrust.

The following is a list of the most common verbal faux pas to banish from your vocabulary:

• “Let me be honest with you”

(Common variations include “To tell you the truth,” and “To be frank with you.”)

Translation: Dishonest Communication. This phrase implies that, up to now, you’ve been deceitful or haven’t been completely honest-that, in some way, you’ve been holding back.

Powerful Choice: Avoid this verbal distraction, and you’ll keep your audience focused on your message.

• “Kinda,” “Sorta,” “Wanta”

(Example- “It’s kinda hard to share my feelings with her.”

Translation: Uncertainty. These words express your uncertainty and inability to communicate your thoughts. (“I know what I want to say, I just don’t know how to express it.”) When we communicate, we need to always ensure that we convey a clear message-don’t waste words.

Powerful Choice: Communicate clearly by not using these words. A stronger message is, “It is difficult for me to express my feelings to her because she interrupts me often.” This clearer message clearly and accurately conveys your thought. (Read the rest of the article at communication skills)

 ”The first responsibility of a leader is to define reality.  The last is to say thank you.  In between the leader is a servant.” - Max Dupree

 The above motivation quote illustrates the need for a leader to inspire their employees by appreciating them.  The following leadership article shares seven leadership secrets to make you a better leader:

Leadership Techniques: Seven Leadership Secrets to Being the Outstanding Leader Everyone Wants to Follow

In this changing, challenging, and competitive workplace we can’t overestimate the importance of good management. Good managers will consistently motivate you to perform at higher levels of productivity. Bad managers will drive you crazy and eventually out of the organization. Managers with poor skills will frequently produce the following results:

• Decreased productivity
• Increased turnover
• Increased absences
• Increased human resources mediation situations
• Increased customer service complaints

 The following are seven secrets to being the “perfect” leader everyone want to work for:

1.  Leadership means Creating a Vision – The best leaders not only assign tasks or monitor performance. They plan for the future and motivate others to see the same vision so they can all thrive to accomplish that vision.

Instead of dwelling on limited problems, the perfect leader looks at the big picture. They live the organization’s mission and implement, motivate, and dedicate all their efforts to accomplishing the mission.

During hundreds of team building and leadership workshops, I have asked the following simple question:

What is your organization’s mission statement?

If there are forty participants in the workshop, thirty-seven will look down at their desk, one participant will make a feeble attempt at reciting what he/she “thinks” is the mission statement, one participant will make a pretty good attempt and recite the first one or two sentences of the mission statement, and finally one student will volunteer to run to the office (or car) to grab a copy of the statement to bring back to the workshop. Out of the thousands of workshop participants I have asked this question, only three knew their mission statement word for word. The amazing part of this is that many of these workshop participants have been with their organization 5-10-20+ years and, they still didn’t know their mission statement. So my question is this:

How do you lead your employees to accomplish your organization’s mission if you (as a manager) don’t know what the mission is?

The perfect leaders live, eat, sleep, and shower with their mission statement. They know exactly what the mission is and understand its importance to the team they lead and to the organization. Most importantly, they communicate the mission statement to their employees at meetings, coachings, feedback sessions, and even corrective actions. Their actions are related to accomplishing the goals of the mission statement and can communicate the vision of the organization.

Action Step – Take the mission statement out of the dark corner in the office. Print the mission statement and its vision on the top of your meeting agenda and recite it at the beginning of the meeting. Then talk about how the employees are helping to realize the goals, values, and vision of the mission. (Read more at Perfect Leader)