I Love You Just the Way You Are

The Wizard on our portal (www.RightFitToolkit.com) got another email from someone wanting to “confront my shortcomings” by taking a Role-Based Assessment and then “making strategic changes.”  Sweet, so why am I cringing?

I don’t know this guy personally so I’m just going to speak generally here.

YOU ARE FINE THE WAY YOU ARE.

Sorry for shouting.

You are probably in the wrong job.  You might even be in the wrong career.

There’s even a good chance that you are reporting to, at best, someone who is a misfit for their job or, at worst, is just a bully.

And, worst of all, if you want to eat, you probably don’t have much choice.  It’s the economy, dammit.

It’s affecting all of us, but I’m working on it.  Not the economy, just our product for people like you.

So if you’re really miserable in your job and you suspect it just doesn’t fit you, well, I’ve been there.

Many times. And I might be able to help you.

Write me – 25 words or less – why you need help and why you deserve it.

The Value of Resolutions Made Public

I completely forgot about the resolution I made last year (December 2, 2007 to be exact – why wait for the New Year’s rush?) to write the magnum opus.  It must have been simmering on the back burner as the thousand and one priorities got in the way because as the year wore on Jack and I returned to working through details.  We even submitted a proposal a couple of weeks ago.  Now, with two days to go before year’s end, it is almost complete.

Did it happen because of the resolution?  Or despite it?

Human nature being what it is, we are so often our own worst enemy.  We refuse to listen to reason, choking off the wisdom of our own inner voice.  We take our hard-won power and toss it away like trash.  And we fight our most positive impulses with a hodge-podge of anxiety, conflict and confusion.

I’d like to think I did it because I promised you I would and I like to keep my word.  So I’ll give you this one for 2009.  Words.  I’ll be back with a lot more of them.

Managing the Receptionist’s Performance

I love WordPress.  There’s a dashboard where you can find out what people searched that led them to your blog, which is how I found out that someone was searching for a way to do a performance evaluation on a receptionist.  In the past people had to ask another person directly when they needed something.  Now you can just do a search and hope for the best.  Except, I suppose, if you really like to get your answers from a person.  I do, which is why I’m such a fan of really great receptionists.

Great receptionists may not have all the answers, but they have two important qualities.  First, they really want to help you.  Second, they usually know who to go to for the best answer.  And they don’t give up easily when the answer is hard to find – they just go to the next person on their list.

If you want to find one, you can screen people with Tools4Recruiting and look for a solid Communicator.  That’s their Role, their total way of being.   Don’t ask if they have the “communication skill set” (I HATE THE TERM “SKILL SET” – sorry for shouting but that is how much I hate that term.)  All you will get is people who can speak well and use the spell checker when they send emails.  That is not what you want.  Assuming you want your receptionist to make customers feel confident you can deliver and to make potential employees really want to be on your team, you want something else.  So junk that old typing test.

Managing that receptionist’s performance?  I assume you mean motivation.  That is everyone else’s job, actually.  If you can get them to respect the receptionist by stopping for a moment’s greeting every morning and a “have a great evening” (or weekend) at the end of the day – something that says you really like your receptionist – you should have a loyal, well functioning employee.  I hope that’s what you’re after, not a bingo card of meaningless “ratings”.

Take Your Self to Work Day

Had a great RNIA working conference call last night with Patricia Diver, a Canadian (Happy Thanksgiving to our neighbors to the north!) luminary in the world of career coaching.  Patricia has just made the switch from academia, returning to the corporate world from whence she came.  Our discussion was about what people need to network for their career, to fully realize their potential.  What an easy debate – there was no other starting place than knowing yourself better and capitalizing on your strengths.  How often, we mused, that people are miserable (defined by us as less than happy) at work just because they aren’t allowed to be who they are.  Wasted value!  Why isn’t this tracked in the Gross National Product?

Fight back.  I declare today – and every day – Take Your Self to Work Day.