How to Stay Motivated During the Festive Season

How to Stay Motivated During the Festive Season As well as being one of the most wonderful times of the year, the holiday season can also be a major productivity killer. Its a time to celebrate and have fun but what are some ways that you can do this, as well as keeping productivity high? Take a look at these top 6 tips to make sure your holiday season is a productive one! 1) Plan: Planning in advance can do wonders for productivity around the holidays. So as December arrives, why not set aside some time to plan your month. Prioritise tasks and make the all important to-do lists. Theres nothing more satisfying than physically crossing something off a list, and it helps writing down tasks so its clear what you should be spending your time on. 2) Enjoy it: A way to stay truly motivated is to allow some time off to celebrate the festivities. Why not arrange a team christmas dinner or allocate a day for a christmas party. its a fun filled times of year, so dont try and avoid it sometimes its worth going with the flow and having some time off to celebrate. 3) Dont over commit: With so many parties and events happening around this time of year, it can be easy to over commit and  over do it on social engagements. Maintaining a suitable work-life balance means youll keep yourself on track. Hangovers + motivation just doesnt happen. 4) Attend the right events: Attending events during the festive season is inevitable. But why not plan your events in a way that means youll meet people from your industry and have a chance to network. Causal setting like events or parties are the perfect place to meet potential new clients. So work out which events will work in your favour, and prioritise these in your favour. Two birds, one stone! 5) Avoid multitasking: This point should be used all year round and not only in the festive season. One way to make sure you get things done is to avoid multi tasking. Pick a task and work on it until its finished. Dont flitter between 3 different jobs do one until its finished to a high quality. 6) Be flexible: Working flexibility is often necessary for people during the holiday season. If you need a day off to attend an event or party, then make sure you allocate that time on another day to complete any tasks you missed out on. The holiday  season is a time for fun and festivities, so make sure you have fun! Got another tips for keeping motivated during the festive season? Tweet them to @UndercoverRec!

Personal Branding Interview George Foreman - Personal Branding Blog - Stand Out In Your Career

Personal Branding Interview George Foreman - Personal Branding Blog - Stand Out In Your Career Today, I spoke to George Foreman, who is a former two-time world heavyweight boxing champion, the face of The George Foreman Grill and a New York Times bestselling author.   In this interview, George goes over his entrepreneurial journey, with sound advice that hes experienced from both his boxing career and his business ventures. How did you make the leap from word heavyweight champion to businessman? I think that every heavyweight champion that’s ever been was a businessman they just never knew it. All I did was wake up to the fact that boxing is business. I was always in business I just never acknowledged it because no one ever told me. George, how have you managed your entrepreneurial journey, while having ten children!? I think if I had never had ten kids, I never would have taken this entrepreneurial journey because I had to feed those kids and I couldn’t come home with ten kids at the table and feed them an excuse and tell them all stories about how and what I used to have. The ten kids made it possible. I had to feed them. Why did you name all of your children after you? Was there some kind of branding strategy there? That’s a good one. I’ve never heard that question before but I’m going to use it. I wanted to give my kids something that they would never lose. I told them that if one does well we all do well and if one does bad, it was a strike against all of us and if anything happened and we lost each other we could find each other by our name and it turned out to be good branding strategy. Your the name and face behind the Foreman Grill. Why did you lend your brand to that series of products in the first place? I was always doing commercials anyways on Madison avenue by doing one commercial after another from Oscar Meyer Wieners to Kentucky Fried Chicken, Doritos and Heineken. Someone told me that “George you’re making all these companies rich and wealthy why don’t you get your own product.” I never considered that I could be in the product business too. We launched this as a joint venture, George Foreman Grills,” and put my name on it. That was the only way to do it. What qualities and skills did you gain as a boxing star that have translated into your business success? I knew that all the best fights in the world people would tell me about this was a great fight and no one ever saw the fight. I realize that the best boxing match that would ever be would be the one that people talked about and bought seats to. I realized that if you’re going to get a good business and a good product it was because you would have to make noise and make people pay attention to it. I got that from boxing. The quality of promoting. What would you say the toughest step to success is? The biggest challenge in anyones life in making yourself a success is understanding that you are at the bottom. It doesn’t matter what business you come into. You start at the bottom and then you can go all the way to the top. But most people are afraid, especially celebrities and people that are already known. So many of us don’t want to start from the bottom because that is admitting that you have a long ways to go. The toughest step is to say “I’m at the bottom and I got to go up.” Even if you have a lot of money in your pocket, start at the bottom and you can only go up. What entrepreneurial lessons have you learned over the course of your life (name 3)? There is never a good business deal made unless everyone is happy. It will come back to haunt you if not everyone is happy. All the success in the world will not make you a good family man if separate. You’re going to have to work at your family yourself. It doesn’t how successful in business you are, you must make a contribution to society. Giving back is most important. George Foreman, once boxings heavyweight champion of the world, is best known today as an entrepreneur and philanthropist. He is a frequent speaker at nationwide events and a New York Times best selling author. George is an ordained minister and preaches twice a week in his church in Houston. He became the oldest man ever to become heavyweight boxing champion of the world when, at age 45, he knocked out Michael Moorer, to reclaim the title he held 20 years earlier. He has been named one of the 25 greatest fighters of all time by Ring magazine. Foreman is also recognized for The George Foreman Grill bearing the slogan Lean Mean Fat-Reducing Grilling Machine.   Foreman was the Olympic heavyweight boxing champion in 1968.   His latest book is called Knockout Entrepreneur.

How to Give Feedback on Poor Performance as a Manager

How to Give Feedback on Poor Performance as a Manager Is constructive criticism the same as feedback? I don’t think so but others may beg to differ. I avoid using the word criticism as much as I can (except in a technical ‘literary criticism’ way) as it always feels as if it is negative. It is judgemental in its essence and unpleasant. Most people feel attacked by it, even if it is well meant or ‘for their own good’. The key difference is that feedback talks about the consequences and the criticism focuses on the action or even worse on the person. One judges and the other informs. Both can be difficult to hear but feedback gives people the opportunity to grow. One of the really challenging things about being a manager is managing performance when it is poor. Telling someone that they are inadequate or failing is a delicate and difficult task for a number of reasons: Upsetting most of us don’t want to upset anyone else and it is really hard to give such news without upsetting someone. Arguments not only do people get upset they may also get defensive or aggressive or fight back. So there is a risk that they will start having a go at you. Enemies the person may take against the person who has criticised them and see you henceforth as ‘the enemy’. Catastrophiser the person on the receiving end may be a ‘catastrophiser’ and take it so much to heart that they may think they are useless at everything It may not work even if the actual conversation goes well the person may not change what they do, so this high risk activity has not delivered any results. Hence criticism is often considered an art, because it is delicate, difficult and poses some high level risks to the relationship. The goal should be about changing the unwanted behaviour or bringing about an improvement in the performance AND preserving the relationship. Of course, there are people who actually enjoy criticising others and do it because of their own fragile self esteem (belittling  others is a way of building themselves up). Then, there are those whose power has gone to their heads and they hide their own sense of inadequacy behind the ‘I’m in charge.. and can tell you’ behaviour. There are a few people around who have a personality disorder that means they like hurting others and inflicting pain but for most people it is a tough call. How can you be effective? Think carefully about what feedback you want to give is this behaviour something that is annoying to you or is there a real problem being created by it? Focus on what you see or hear happening, what you have observed and or what you have actually been told by someone who did see it. Don’t rely on rumours or hearsay as that will move the firm ground from under your feet. Make sure you have evidence (such as names or dates) with you when you tackle the person. If you have only seen it once (unless it was outrageous) then maybe ignore it? My rule of thumb is that you need to see to hear it three times to be sure that it is a pattern. Think about where you speak to them never do it in front of others that would humiliate them and run the risk of giving them an audience. Always in private maybe even off site. Start with a positive. This is known as the hamburger method: to sandwich the meat of the negative feedback between two positive comments. Give yourself some ‘wiggle room’. Broach the subject by saying ‘what I feel’, ‘what I understand to be happening…’ that way it is less damning and if they can refute the behaviour or the incident you have not gotten into a confrontation by being too firm. Describe what you have seen and when you saw it…..tell them what is not happening or what you are not seeing. Do not use words like ‘always’ ‘never’ as it is unlikely that the person ‘always’ does or does not do that, and once you have exaggerated the frequency, you destroy the credibility of your argument and put them on the offensive. Expect an aggressive reaction. Ask if that is true, an accurate reflection always see what their perspective is. Explain the consequences of this sort of behaviour…for you, for their colleagues and for the organisation. Focus all the time on the specific behaviour and not on the whole person never say ‘you are….’  as that is attacking their personality! Express your pleasure at another aspect of their work. Ask for specific new or different behaviours: ‘what I need you to do……’ and explain the positive benefits of what this will mean for the organisation or their colleagues. If you can get them to commit to doing it, ask them what support they need to put this into practice. Set some measures and a review date, that may be next week or even a month away depending on what the change is. Conclusion: You are not giving them the option of doing it or not you need to be assertive as you have the right to ask this of them so ask clearly but express it in terms of what you need to see more of, what you need them to do differently etc. Also, focus on the outcomes you may need to accept a little negotiation around the margins but stick with your principles. RELATED: How Would You Score Yourself as a Manager of People?

6 Reasons Why Job Boards Dont Always Work

6 Reasons Why Job Boards Don’t Always Work Job boards have gotten a bad rap lately. Despite the fact that they are often the first stop for college grads looking to enter the workforce, or experienced employees looking to change careers, many involved in recruiting and hiring love to criticize job boards and resume posting sites. One reason is that in order to hire cutting-edge talent, one must employ cutting-edge technology â€" and how can technology that was created in the ‘90s be considered cutting edge? The truth is, there are a number of reasons why job boards fail to live up to the expectations of both employers and job seekers, and the fault lies partially with both parties, as well as with neither. Let’s look at a few factors that cause job board dissatisfaction, and the reasons behind the job posting evolution. 1. Employers When it comes to job board frustration, part of the problem lies with standard employer practices. Nowadays, most employers and recruiters use an Applicant Tracking System (ATS) to collect applicants’ resumes and attach them to open positions. An ATS will usually allow employers to search its database for resumes that fit the job’s required qualifications, thus allowing the employer to build a pipeline of candidates long before the job ever sees a job board. Additionally, an ATS will often rate a candidate’s fit for the job based on his or her resume. While those jobs that are posted will often receive hundreds of applications, employers usually only view a handful of applications based on fit, or who applied first. While a good ATS will notify those who weren’t selected, many applicants never receive a response, adding to their frustration. While none of these are the fault of employers, there are those who try to game the system and benefit from job boards at the candidates’ expense. Posting non-existent jobs for the purposes of information gathering, building a resume database and generating website traffic is certainly nothing new. Furthermore, some businesses, like academic institutions, are required to post ALL open positions on job boards, regardless of the position type, where they are in the recruiting process or from where they plan on hiring. The result is often the same â€" frustrated candidates who wonder why applying to job postings doesn’t yield results. 2. Candidates Applicants aren’t the only ones who get frustrated with job boards â€" in fact, sometimes they’re the ones causing it. Despite what some consider to be common resume writing knowledge, a search of a job board’s resume database often reveals both the best and worst. Resumes devoid of formatting, filled with spelling and grammar mistakes and poorly worded experience summaries add a whole other level of difficulty in finding candidates who meet experience requirements. Add to the fact that those who upload their resume, then find a job soon after, rarely remember to remove it, leaving tens of thousands of posted resumes for candidates no longer on the market. Also causing frustration for employers are those candidates who apply to numerous jobs for which they’re not qualified. Desperate times call for desperate measures, and anyone who’s been unemployed knows the urgency of finding work when bills start piling up. Unfortunately, this causes some candidates to treat the application process as a numbers game and apply to as many open positions as possible. This is obviously frustrating for employers, who are already inundated with applications for job postings. 3. Social media In the past decade, there have been a number of changes to the way companies recruit talent. Certainly the biggest impact has been made by LinkedIn, custom-designed for employers and recruiters to discover and connect with employees with the exact skill sets they require. Other less career-centric social media sites like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and more recently, Snapchat allow employers and job seekers alike to use the age-old art of networking in a modern medium that allows them to connect with people in every corner of the world in every industry. 4. Passive candidates Also working against job boards is the emphasis many employers place on only recruiting passive candidates. While the requirement that candidates are already employed before a company will hire them is controversial, it usually negates using traditional job postings to fill positions. Instead, recruiters or hiring managers opt to source passive candidates on LinkedIn or industry-specific websites and sell them on the idea of leaving their current job for a better opportunity. 5. Referrals When taking hiring metrics into consideration, employee referrals beat hiring from job boards in nearly every category. Time to hire, cost of hire, time to onboard, tenure at the company â€" employee referrals always rank at the top. Employers realize that good employees know good employees. When faced with the option of paying to post a job ad, screening hundreds of resumes and conducting dozens of interviews, the option of relying on employees’ recommendations to build a candidate pool is usually more attractive. 6. The value Those who profess that job boards are a thing of the past may be overlooking a few essential recruiting demands that they still fulfill effectively. For employers that need to hire multiple workers for entry-level or low-skilled positions, connecting with passive candidates individually on LinkedIn isn’t a viable option. When it comes to building a pipeline of candidates who have not yet established themselves in the workforce, or for positions that may not require a strong social media presence, job boards are still an effective tool. Also consider the amount of time it takes to source candidates individually, and the amount of lost revenue while a job goes unfilled. A well-written job ad placed on the appropriate job board can yield numerous quality candidates in a short period of time. And while posting options used to be limited to large generic job boards, now there are hundreds of industry-specific job boards that allow employers to reach candidates with unique skill sets in niche markets. While job boards now share the recruiting space with a number of other shiny new tools, they’re not dead yet. For many employers, the perfect recruiting tool may be a combination of job boards and social media, posting ads from job boards on company social media pages to maximize exposure, or posting social media links on job board ads, allowing candidates to view and connect with the employer online in order to get an idea of the company culture and employer brand. While those who thrive on recruitment’s cutting edge will continue to talk of job boards’ demise, there are some tools in the toolbox that are easily forgotten until the need arises. For employers and recruiters, there’s a long road ahead before job boards disappear completely.

Women In Tech Speaker Lineup at Debut HQ - London

Women In Tech Speaker Lineup at Debut HQ - London You  may have heard were putting on a little Women in Tech shindig at Debut HQ this week. If you havent, this Wednesday were putting on a truly awesome Women in Tech event featuring LOréal, Vodafone Group, Siemens, Bloomberg, Microsoft and Rolls-Royce. Phew, thats a lot of companies! We wanted to introduce you to the six amazing women wholl be speaking on our panel on Wednesday. Our panel will be discussing the challenges of being a woman in the tech industry, the soft skills you need to get a tech role, and their predictions of what the industry will look like in 2017. Cant make the event? Well be  live-tweeting from @DebutCareers AND fielding your questions there, so just tweet us with the hashtag #WomenInTech to get involved! LOréal Daniele Mendes Representing LOréal  is Daniele Mendes. Her current role is International Digital Systems Support Manager for The Body Shop, one of LOréals subsidiary companies. Vodafone Group Margherita Zaccaria Margherita Zaccaria is representing Vodafone Group. She is the Group Head of Security Design Delivery. Siemens Amber O’Connor Amber O’Connors role at Siemens is Equipment Health Monitoring Performance Engineer. Bloomberg Lilit Darbinyan Lilit Darbinyan is one of Bloombergs Engineering Team Leads. Rolls-Royce Ilektra Kanaki Ilektra Kanaki is Rolls-Royces Delivery Lead  on Big Data Analytics. Microsoft Elke Duncker Elke Duncker has worked at Microsoft for the last 16 years. Her current job title is Technical Service Delivery Leader, EMEA Consumer. If you have any questions for our speakers, well get them answered for you live! Simply tweet us @DebutCareers with the hashtag #WomenInTech. Attending the event? Come prepared there will be recruiters present. Also, there will be a mystery challenge at the event. Complete it, and you could win the chance at a one-to-one meeting with recruiters from one of these fabulous companies.