This article is based on the free eBook "Project Management"

Nowadays, project management is regarded as a very high priority as all companies or organisations, whether small or large, are at one time or another involved in implementing new undertakings, innovations and changes etc. – projects! These projects may be individually diverse, however over time, some tools, management techniques and problem-solving approaches have proven themselves to be more rewarding than others in bringing projects to a successful end.

The source of modern Project Management

The development of project management has always been in parallel to the development of general trends in worldwide economics. The 1990′s were all about globalisation; the 2000′s are about velocity and close to the edge of a new decade in which the world maybe has to face an economic recession. Nowadays, almost more than ever, everybody asks for “projects” to return the world economy to its former speed. This also underlines the importance of continuous learning and development of project management capabilities in organisations to allow corporate teams in a fast changing world to work collaboratively in defining plans and managing complex projects by synchronising team-oriented tasks, schedules, and resource allocations.

The basics of Project Management

The fundamental nature of a project is that it is a temporary endeavour undertaken to create a unique product, service, or result. Projects are distinguished from operations and from programs.

A project will deliver business and/or technical objectives, is made up of defined processes & tasks, will run for a set period of time, has a budget and resources. Project Management deals with tracking this process’ execution, from a schedule and cost perspective. It includes functions for developing the optimal project schedule, producing a financial model of the project, scheduling and tracking of effort against plan, managing costs against budget, and reporting of status, to name but a few.

The characteristics of a project

To be temporary signifies that there is a discrete and definable commencement and conclusion; the management of a project requires tailored activities to support this characteristic and, as such, a key indicator of project success is how it performs against its schedule—that is, does is start and end on time?

Therefore, every project has the following characteristics:

• Consists of temporary activities that have predetermined start and end dates.

• Uses restricted resources.

• It has a single goal or a set of goals.

• All events are to be realized to develop a single and new output.

• Usually has a budget.

• Usually a project manager is responsible for co-ordinating all activities.

Projects are usually chartered and authorized external to the project organisation by an enterprise, a government agency, a company, a program organisation, or a portfolio organisation, as a result of one or more of the following features:

•  A market demand (e.g., a consumer product company authorising a project to develop a new fruit drink for kids with less sugar in response to an increased health awareness)

• A business need (e.g., a publisher authorising a project to write a new book to increase its revenues)

• A customer request (e.g., an amusement park authorizing a company to develop a new roller coaster)

• A technological advance (e.g., an electronics firm authorising a new project to develop a faster, cheaper, and smaller netbook)

• A legal requirement (e.g., U.S. federal government authorises a project to establish laws for controlling the home loan system)

• A social need (e.g., a non-governmental organisation authorising a project to raise the awareness of donating blood)

These features can also be called problems, opportunities, or business requirements. The central theme of all these features is that management must make a decision about how to respond and what projects to authorize and charter.

As a result, the thrilling and demanding position of a project manager not only requires a particular set of skills – how to communicate, to control and to motivate people, but also the specific knowledge about tools and techniques required to run a project successfully.

If you want to learn more about the basics of managing projects, take a look at the free eBook “Project Management” written by Olaf Passenheim.

Download “Project Management” right here

This article is based on the free eBook "Overcoming Perfectionism"

Be honest: are you enjoying your work? If not, you are one of many who have forgotten why they enjoy working in the first place. But maybe it is not the work itself but your attitude towards it that is the problem. Is it possible that you’ve become bogged down in trying so hard that you’ve forgotten to take care of your own needs – forgotten how to lighten up – and are finding the perfect excuse in blaming your work? Isn’t it time to start enjoying your work again?

There are different ways to start becoming less driven and enjoy your work instead of seeing it as a stressor. Let’s take a look at some techniques for enjoying your work.

Develop a positive mental attitude

That includes being aware of your negative thinking and challenging it. If you are giving a presentation, are your thoughts interfering with your performance, e.g. ‘They can see I’m nervous!’?  If so replace them with more helpful, realistic thoughts such as ‘everyone gets a bit nervous when they give a presentation – it’s normal!’ Lighten up – don’t take yourself so seriously! Work on your sense of humour.

Take on challenges

When we are anxious we find ourselves avoiding challenges because they are uncomfortable.  However then our comfort zone gradually shrinks and we find ourselves doing less and less. So it’s important to keep moving forward and trying new things, in spite of the discomfort. You can stand it!

Work at giving up control

You know that being over-controlling is irrational and born out of deep seated insecurity.  It tends to make us increasingly rigid and judgemental in our attitudes and that makes us difficult to work with. Be patient with yourself. It takes time to change long-standing habits, but little by little you will find it gets easier.

Keep the big picture in mind!

That means being careful to notice when you are becoming too bogged down in the detail. Get into the habit of standing back and rechecking priorities. Ask yourself ‘what’s the best use of my time right now?’

Communicate assertively

Feeling excessive concern about mistakes or worrying about how you are perceived can lead you to communicate ineffectively, but by working on a positive frame of mind you will begin to feel a growing sense of confidence. Once you begin saying ‘no’ when you need to, you will notice that, amazingly enough, nothing dreadful happens! So it’s about thinking and behaving differently, and slowly it feels more natural and you get results.

Get organised

Make sure you know what’s ahead. Are there meetings you need to be prepared for? Make sure you are well-prepared, have the necessary documents and arrive on time. And make a determined effort to keep up the momentum.

Take care not to be too demanding or judgemental of others

If you know you are prone to this, remind yourself of the need to be realistic and reasonable. We are all fallible (you too), and if you can modify this behaviour you will find others much more willing to co-operate with you.

Be honest with yourself

If you find yourself feeling off balance or emotional (angry, upset, guilty, anxious, depressed…) ask yourself what’s really going on. There’s usually something we can do to improve things, and if there is, then resolve to do whatever it is. If, on the other hand this is outside of your control, you may need to accept that. You can only control the controllables.

Be kind to yourself

Address any imbalance between your working and home life. Make sure you take time out for relaxation and fun – you deserve it. And if you make a mistake, at home or at work, learn from it and immediately pick yourself up and move on. Accepting yourself, just as you are, is a challenge, but one worth taking on! Remember the worse you feel about yourself, the greater the drive to be ‘perfect’.

So which of the above are areas where you would like to make some improvement? Identify them and resolve to start now. Why not get yourself a coach or someone else who can support you and keep you on track whilst you begin making those changes.

Do you want to learn more about the right attitude toward work? Then “Overcoming Perfectionism” written by Jenny Gould is the right book for you.

Download the free eBook “Overcoming Perfectionism”

This article is based on the free eBook "The A to Z of Presentations"

Are you planning on becoming a professional presenter? Whether you are giving a presentation at university, trying to win business from a valued customer, selling an idea to your board of senior executives, or making a farewell speech to a retiring colleague, these A to G tips will help you come across as someone who is knowledgeable, skilled, and enthusiastic. With these tips your next presentation can come!

Audience

The main purpose of a presentation is to win an audience over to your views, whether they are facts, opinions or interpretations of facts and opinions.

You can only do this by one or a combination of the following:

1. Focus on meeting their needs

2. Charm them by your manner and manners

3. Be distinct and memorable

4. Provide an attention-grabbing idea

5. Reassure them that there are minimal risks in what you propose

6. Keep them interested

7. Work to a plan which the audience can follow

8. Lead them to where you want to take them

9. Be yourself and naturally confident

Breathing

Breathing exercises before a presentation ensure that you are calm and relaxed when you begin to speak. There are a number of good breathing exercises, ranging from simply becoming aware of your breathing to meditation. This simple exercise can be carried out anywhere:

Find a quiet place where you can be undisturbed. Stand still and feel the ground beneath your feet. Imagine yourself suspended by a thread connected to the crown of your head. Let your neck and shoulders relax. Bend your knees a little. Bring the thumb and forefingers of both hands together and turn the palms upwards. Close your eyes. Now just listen to yourself breathing and allow any thoughts to wander in and out of your mind at will. Feel at ease and if you feel hurried, tell yourself there is no rush. Slow your breathing. In your own time, come back.

Creative Pause

Some of the best moments in a speech are, surprisingly, those moments when you stop.  Knowing when to stop is the art of the creative pause.  It can work for you in a number of ways:

• To tease the audience, perhaps after a provocative question – e.g. “I bet you’d like to know how you could make a million…”

• To pause before the punchline of a joke

• To wait for an audience to settle after laughter or a general discussion

• To give the audience time to think (for example, when looking at a new overhead)

• To show you’re in total control by holding the pause just slightly longer than you need to

Difficult Questions

Questions from the floor may or may not enhance your presentation depending on the subject and your audience. If you do decide to take questions, you may need to field four different question types. These are set to trap you:

1. The test question to find out how much you know.

“What evidence do you have for making these claims?”

2. The show-off question in which the questioner wants to show how clever they are.

3. The defensive question which may reveal that someone feels under threat, e.g. “How do you know this’ll work?” (= I’m scared if it does)

4. The concealed objection, which is a way of challenging you, e.g. “Why is the price so high?”

Endings

The ending can sometimes be the most important part of a presentation: if first impressions win you the audience, it is final impressions that last.

A classic ending should see you going out on a high note. The final message should encapsulate without merely repeating what you’ve said.

• Simplicity: Keep your last words simple and easy to remember.  Could you put it on a T-shirt?

• Directness: Make sure the message comes over loud and clear.  People should know what they have to do next.

• Something unexpected: Finishing on a high note means a final flourish in a surprising but delightful way.

First Impressions Last

When you have been introduced or have completed your own formalities, the audience’s eyes and minds turn expectantly to you. They want you to interest them.

Your opening words and the way you express yourself must make an immediate impression. The audience needs to each say to themselves: “this looks worth staying for.” You must look and sound in charge.

One simple way to achieve this is to use an impact opening technique: one that intrigues, grabs the attention, and surprises without embarrassing or unnerving your audience. In fiction, one of the most attention-grabbing openers is the opening sentence of George Orwell’s “1984″: “It was a bright cold day in April and the clocks were striking thirteen.”

Gestures

There are six meaningful gestures which have their part to play in a presentation:

• Directing, e.g. pointing at someone or something

• Describing, e.g. showing what you mean through the use of hands and arms (“the one that got away”)

• Counting, e.g. the numbers one, two, three, on your fingers

• Holding something

• Making a dramatic gesture

• Signalling with your hands while someone else is speaking, e.g. “stop”, “go on”, “wait” signals.

Any meaningful gesture needs to be deliberately used. To eliminate repetitive gestures of which you are unaware, get yourself video-ed during a run-through and critically analyse your appearance with a colleague.

There are a lot more of these easy to put into action presentation tools. If you want to learn more about this topic, take a look at the free eBook “The A to Z of Presentations” written by Eric Garner.

Download the free eBook “The A to Z of Presentations”

This article is based on the free eBook "In Pursuit of World Class Excellence"

Having become a highly successful organisation and maybe even achieved world class excellence, however admirable it may be, it is just the beginning of a never ending journey. In the relentless, head-snapping global competition, standing still is the quickest way to slip back. A truly world class excellence must be resilient, long-lasting, and can by definition stand the test of time.

How to sustain excellent performance

Admittedly, maintaining and sustaining world class excellence is a lot more challenging than achieving it. This is because organisations, after they have achieved leading positions, often lose their further directions and are unable to set the next target. At this stage, the conventional goal setting and organisational learning techniques may cease to be effective. What must be installed is an innovative learning and creative process.

How a leader can show people the future

In essence, the learning beyond world class is a process of creative evolution, a journey into the unchartered water. This calls for the leadership that can show people the future and can communicate the new purpose that is worthy of commitment, which will also continue to inspire everyone in the organisation. The journey ahead is to be primarily a lot more emotional rather than technical.

Even when a leadership is given and a renewed direction and development strategy is formulated, sustaining a world class status is still far from certain. The ‘law of diminishing returns’ prevails, and management is no exception.  If organisations follow the same orthodox and keep the same management approach unchanged, over time, the benefit and effectiveness of those approaches will begin to decline and eventually even diminish completely. To sustain the achieved world class excellence and go beyond the known standard, organisation must not only continue its pursuing, but also refresh its pursuit through changing and learning.

Why the ultimate source of creativity comes from the people

The only agent and active force in the changing and learning process is the people, and it is from the people that the ultimate source of creativity comes. Business author and speaker Tom Peters has suggested the Seven-Step Path to Sustaining Success. At every step, the only measure is excellence. The first and the leading step for all the rest is taking care of the people.

• You take care of people
• The people take care of service
• The service takes care of the customer
• The customer takes care of the profit
• The profit takes care of the investment
• The investment takes care of the re-investment
• The re-investment takes care of the future

What does the future hold for the world class excellence in the 21^st century? The accelerating pace of change will certainly test the resilience of every existing organisation including those who believe to be the world class ones. In the meantime, the turbulence in the global business environment continues to create unprecedented opportunities as well as challenges.

To learn more about world class excellence, take a look at “In pursuit of World Class Excellence” written by Dr. Dawei Lu.

Download “In pursuit of World Class Excellence” right here

These eBooks can show you how to write an outstanding CV, convince the interviewer to hire you or what to do when you hate your current job.

Change your future today by downloading our free career eBooks.

Start with the 4 popular titles below!

Creating your CV as a self marketing tool

This book shows you how to build up your CV. Increase your opportunities of securing that fantastic job! Start now!

Interview Secrets Exposed

Prepare yourself effectively for the next interview: learn how to answer the most common interview questions, what to wear to the interview and how to follow up after the interview. Good luck!

Managing your Career

Do you have a career path? Do you know exactly what you want in terms of your career? Do you know what you’ll be best suited to? Get an answer to these questions by studying this free eBook.

Planning for new opportunities

Learn what it takes to land a new job, to be proactive, to set targets and to recognize the best in yourself. This free eBook helps you kickstart your dreams! Go for it!

This article is based on the free eBook "Developing an Internet Marketing Strategy"

A successful Internet marketing strategy needs different tools and techniques to reach its desired target group. In addition to common types such as keyword marketing, there are additional kinds of Search Engine Marketing techniques that you can use in your Internet marketing strategy. These SEM techniques will require more advanced knowledge, more application of software, and more investment. Let’s take a look at these advanced techniques.

Advertising on other websites

If you look at some websites, they will have banners on the top, bottom, and/or sides of the pages. This is one way of investing some capital into advertising. It is one way of bringing in traffic to your own company’s website. To do this, find a link on the website that says “Advertise with Us” or “About Us.” Ads on another website can vary widely in price. Some of the factors that will affect what you pay include:

• The size of the ad you choose

• The location on the page where you want your ad

• The amount of traffic that the website receives

• The competition for ad space on that site

Before you invest in advertising on another website, you should research the kind of demographic the website brings in. If you are considering advertising with them, keep in contact and ask them questions. This information will be valuable.

Pay-Per-Click Advertising

When you want to only pay for Internet advertising that gets a response – a “click” – you want Pay Per Click (PPC) advertising. In this case, you are usually talking about text ads that appear to the right of search engine results or on websites that have monetized their sites by allowing advertisers to place ads on the site that the advertiser believes that site’s customers will be interested in.

The most commonly discussed form of PPC advertising is Google AdWords, though similar programs exist on all the major search engines. In these types of advertising, you are competing with other advertisers for keyword-based ads based on what you are willing to pay to have your ad shown first.

Affiliate Marketing

The final major category of Internet marketing is affiliate marketing. In affiliate marketing, you get other people to drive traffic to your site in return for a percentage of any sale that is made as a result of that visit to your site. In other words, you allow others to do part of your marketing for you. However, keep in mind that affiliate marketing is not suited for every product.

You can register with large affiliate “marketplaces” that help manage your affiliate programs for a fee. Some of the most popular include: ClickBank, Commission Junction (CJ.com), PayDotCom, AffiliateMarketplace, Click2Sell and PayGear.

You will need to register with these sites and then people who want to be your affiliates will be able to find you. Of course, you can manage your own affiliate program, but when you are first experimenting with affiliate marketing it will probably be easier for you to use one or more of these services.

Get to know more Internet marketing tools by reading “Developing an Internet Marketing Strategy” written by The Internet Marketing Academy.

Download “Developing an Internet Marketing Strategy” right here

This article is based on the free eBook "Networking"

The future belongs to those who can create networks. Sound networking abilities are essential in a knowledge-based society. In consequence, people with broad and effective networks are usually both successful and in demand.

Futurologists tell us that in time to come, the route to success will be ever more dependent on wide and relevant networks – you will have problems if you just sit back and hope that everything will work out. This is why you should know what good networking is all about. To become a skilled networker, you can start by studying the following 10 pieces of advice.

Networking skills from A to Z

• 1. Remember always to carry your business cards – which should include all relevant details. A photo on the business card makes it easier to call a person to mind, if you want to contact them later.

• 2. You will not build a network by sitting in your office and making phone calls. You have to be physically present at receptions, conferences, trade fairs, networking meetings, courses, etc. It happens in the field. Obsession with the idea that “networking” is boring and filled with failure needs to be transformed into something positive: you have to go out and meet new people, who for sure will be able to contribute one way or another to your life and your business. Think about the fact that good networks represent power and influence.

• 3. Your body language signals something about your state of mind, your comfort, and your energy levels. Always be the best edition of yourself. Remember that we are attracted by winners and their attitudes. For losers, it’s an uphill struggle; so, if necessary, fake it so long as a reception or a conference lasts, in order to achieve optimum return from a networking situation. If you don’t have the strength to do that, or if you cannot force yourself to summon up the energy you need, then best stay at home this time.

• 4. Be active! Make contact, introduce yourself, and have always three opening small-talk questions ready. Examples: What brings you here? Where do you come from? What do you do? Be a good listener, follow up with questions, and stay on topic. Seek out common interests or passions. This encourages the possibility of further conversation, and makes it easier to remember people subsequently.

• 5. Be good at circulating, so you can talk to lots of people. Remember to close by handing over your card and making an arrangement about when you will be in contact again. If you do not arrange a contact, then phone or e-mail no later than the following week. In such a situation, offer something concrete – a meeting, lunch, or an offer. This makes it easier to phone, and easier for the other party to relate to the contact.

• 6. Use small talk to create a good atmosphere, so that other people relax and you will be relaxed yourself. Be aware of those around you – praise them, talk to them, and let them feel accepted and welcome. If you are a man: be polite, it pays off. For the women it is all about receiving attention and showing happiness when you get it.

• 7. When we go out to meet new people, we Danes prefer to contact people we already know or who seem similar to ourselves. And that is fine, if we are just out to have fun; but, if it is about business, it is important to move out of our comfort zone and instead be aware of people who can enrich us with new and different opportunities, approaches, and perspectives.

• 8. Choose relevant networks and also individuals in the swim who might benefit your business. Well-known, admired people are not necessarily difficult to get in contact with. A determined effort based on serious preparation might help by making the contact more relevant for that person, and also by dissipating your own nervousness. Go for gold! No one thanks you for not doing it! Remember that good networking is also about sharing your own knowledge. What you share will usually be reciprocated.

• 9. Give yourself and your staff a goal every time you devote a few hours to a reception, a day to a conference, or a week to a course. These networking opportunities should result in at least one new contact for your company – preferably more. By setting this as a goal, you will escape your ego-centredness, and you will turn seeking new contacts into a professional activity. That way, networking can become a sport where the challenge is to do ever better.

• 10. Make networking a work discipline. Find role models, or be someone who leads the way and shows how to choose good networks and how to act within them. Set criteria for what networking activity should contribute to your company. Prioritize the function and show that it is valued; offer attention to those staff who take this function seriously, and reward them.

Do you want to learn more about networking? Then “Networking” written by Simone Lemming Andersen is the right book for you.

Download the free eBook “Networking”

This article is based on the free eBook "Managing your Career"

Goal setting is a powerful tool that can be used to motivate and challenge yourself further towards meeting your career management goals. However, there is a right way and a wrong way to set goals. Well set goals are clear and you can objectively determine whether or not the goal has been reached. Poorly set goals are not clear and you can’t necessarily tell what it will look like once the goal has been achieved. The result is frustration and lack of effectiveness.

In 1990, Locke and Dr. Gary Latham published “A Theory of Goal Setting and Task Performance” in which they identified five principles that were important in setting goals that will motivate others. These principles are: clarity, challenge, commitment, feedback, and task complexity.

Clarity

A clear goal is one that can be measured and leaves no room for misunderstanding. Goals should be very explicit regarding what behavior is desired and will be rewarded. Look at the goals listed in Figure 1below to help you understand how to be clearer when setting goals. Continue to ask yourself the question, ‘What will it look like if the goal is completed?’ The answer to the question will help you identify clear goals.

Challenge

If we know that a goal is a challenge and is also perceived as such by those that assigned it to us, we are more likely to be motivated to achieve it. Of course, there is a balance to be struck with this principle. A goal should be challenging, but must still be achievable.

Commitment

In order for goals to be effective, they need to be agreed upon. The goal should be in line with the general, established expectations that you have had for the employee in the past. The employee and employer must both be committed to using the resources needed to complete the goal and should also agree on what the reward will be. You could also ask employees to create their own goals for themselves and then discuss them as a team. You might not be aware that someone wants to improve their skills in a certain area or learn more about a specific process.

Feedback

What if the person is halfway to completing the goal but they have a question? What if you suspect that the person is going about the process of completing the goal in the wrong way? Feedback is a chance to correct or clarify before the goal has been reached.

Task complexity

When a role is complex or highly technical, the person in that role is often already highly motivated or else they wouldn’t have reached that level in their organization. However, even the most motivated person can become discouraged if the complexity of the task and the time it would take to complete it wasn’t fully understood. It is important to make sure that the person has enough time to reach the goal. Unreasonable time expectations will drive a person to overwhelm themselves with work and become less effective as the stress level increases.

Are you interested in gaining further insights into this topic? Then “Managing your Career” written by MTD Training is the right book for you.

Download  “Managing your Career” right here

This article is based on the free eBook "Strategic Thinking"

Strategic management is a widely studied field because it is through strategy that organizations attempt to reach their goals and out-think the competition. Thinking strategically requires research, analysis, and forethought in order to create a plan for how you will proceed as an organization.

We must start by asking ourselves if we are doing the right things in our team, in our division, in our department, and then in our organization as a whole. We must create a plan for how we will make choices in the future – ideally making only the choices that align with our strategic plan. And we must be willing to identify and make changes to the way we currently think and operate so that we are truly guided by the strategic plan that we have adopted.

Before you begin thinking strategically and creating your strategic plan, you will want to understand why you are spending the time to create it, follow it, and adjust it as necessary. Plus, you can’t create a plan until you know what your overall guiding purpose should be.

Focus point

A strategic plan is like a game plan for the team to follow. You want your team to know that they have a leader that knows where the team is headed. The plan gives you something that your team can rally around and get excited about. It can help the team to feel connected to the mission of the organization and to feel that they can make a contribution to helping the organization to reach the desired destination. You can use the strategic plan to generate excitement across the entire organization, not just your own team.

Path to success

The strategic plan is a guidepost for those times that you can’t seem to remember what you are supposed to be working towards. If there is one rule that stays the same in business as in life, it’s that things are constantly changing. When changes happen, sometimes faster than we can keep up with them, it’s easy to get sidetracked from your goal.

Operating instructions

We get operating instructions with everything in life these days, from shampoo to complex technical gadgets. Yet we don’t always have operating instructions for our own organizations. We might have a general idea of what we are doing and how we are doing it from day to day, but each individual is usually making their own ‘to do’ list for their own job. So how can you make sure that these various ‘to do’ lists are all moving you towards the same goal?

A strategic plan is like a large-scale, overview to-do list. It helps each person to understand their own role in the provision of your product or service and how their actions can impact – positively or negatively – the plan’s results.

Outlasting turnover

Another thing that changes in the business world? The people that are working for the business. Almost gone are the days when someone spends their entire career with the same organization. Instead, people tend to move from company to company as opportunities present themselves. If you’re not prepared for this kind of turnover, the knowledge and skills that a person takes with them when they leave can also leave you in a lurch.

But a strategic plan can outlast the turnover that you’ll experience in your organization. If it is thoroughly done, the document can be picked up and followed by the next person that comes into a position. They will know what their duties are and how they are to perform them. In this sense, a strategic plan is a form of succession planning because it helps positions in the organization continue to function regardless of who is holding those positions.

Remembering the big picture

Yes, you want a strategic plan that helps you have step-by-step operating instructions. You want it to be detailed enough that you can use it as a guide to your basic activities and so that it keeps you focused on what you need to be working on. But you also want the strategic plan to be a reminder of what you are doing all this for. What is the big picture? What is the ultimate goal?

A well-written strategic plan reminds you of the overarching aims of your activity and invites you to discuss the direction that the company is taking. Are you getting the best performance that you can out of your business? Are you using the best skills available from your employees? A strategic plan gives you a top-level overview of your organization, its performance, its mission, and its goals and it encourages you and the other leadership to keep these high-level topics in your conversations and on your minds.

Are you keen to learn more about strategic management? Then “Thinking Strategically” written by MTD Training is the right book for you.

Download the free eBook “Thinking Strategically”

This article is based on the free eBook "The Seven Deadly Sins of Employment"

Unfortunately, most of us know this kind of situation: We had one of these unpleasant job interviews and got rejected. What did I do wrong? Am I unqualified or not convincing enough? We can lay you at rest there. It is not always the job candidate, almost as often it is the interviewer himself who is to blame for interviews that yield relatively poor results. Below you can find several traps an interviewer can fall into.

Too much perfume or make up

We all have preferences in terms of appearance and behavior and it’s easy to be disproportionately affected by these. But note that these minor things don’t mean that the candidate can’t do the job. The types of thing that interviewers may recoil from include: baseball caps, scruffy clothing or trainers, too much perfume or make up. There are many more! Recognize and put aside your personal preferences and concentrate objectively on the relevant facts.

Too late

Some employers delay their recruitment activities until they’re really desperate for staff. This often means that the employer will accept a deviation away from the requirements of the person specification. In fact, they will accept almost anyone with a pulse to do the job. Inevitably, serious mistakes occur when you are in this frame of mind. Plan your diary properly to avoid making this mistake.

Too many stereotypes

Human beings tend to draw conclusions based on a variety of things, including racial stereotypes. For example, your boss can be convinced that a strong handshake meant that the person was a good leader. There is no evidence that a strong (or weak) handshake means anything of the sort. Collect all the relevant facts presented by a candidate and compare them to the criteria for the job.

Too much in common

People are drawn to people like themselves. We feel rapport and a sense of sameness with others with whom we share certain similarities. Just because a candidate supports the same football team as you, plays golf or has children at the same school does not mean that they’re the right person for the job. Collect all the relevant facts presented by a candidate and compare them to the criteria for the job.

Too convinced about their own judgment

Many interviewers pride themselves on their ability to judge a candidate immediately. All you really know about someone after 30 seconds is how they look and sound. You don’t know anything about their ability to do the job. Keep questioning to gather objective evidence.

All in all, there is as much to consider on the employer’s as on the employee’s side when it comes to job interviews. If the right people are recruited in the first place, they are likely to stay, fit into your organization and work to optimum effect.

Interested in further recruitment topics? Then “The Seven Deadly Sins of Employment” written by Russell HR Consulting is the right book for you.

“The Seven Deadly Sins of Employment” – Download for free