Blog
Debra Wheatman, President of Careers Done Write, provides expert insight to the job search process that puts your career in gear with tips for interviewing, networking, job search strategies and how to create a winning resume and cover letter.
Ask Deb: What if I Don’t Want a Promotion to Management?
I don’t want to be a manager or director. I enjoy being an individual contributor. I like my work, I’m good at it, and I’m not interested in the additional responsibilities that come with taking on a management role. How do I let my manager know that I don’t want to be promoted or lead people?….
Building Executive Presence
You may have heard the term “executive presence.” Perhaps it was mentioned within the context of your professional development, or maybe you heard about it from a colleague or peer. But what is executive presence, and why does it matter? Executive presence is about your ability to inspire confidence, which is crucial to your career. Your team wants to know that you’re the leader they want to follow, your peers want to see that you’re capable and reliable, and, most importantly, senior leaders want to know that you have the potential to achieve great things. The fact is that once you reach a certain level, results alone do not cut it. Do you want to lead a team to achieve success on highly visible initiatives? Do you want a seat at the table (literally) where important decisions are made? Do you want to improve your management style and inspire your team to believe in your vision? Then you need executive presence….
A Little Empathy Goes a Long Way
Inherent to the human condition is the desire to know that we are understood and valued. That is why the most essential management characteristic is empathy. The ability to connect with people to inspire performance is far more important than being an expert in your field or clearly articulating your expectations. An empathetic leader or manager can create an enjoyable work environment for employees, encouraging growth and productivity….
Ask Deb: Should I apologize to my former boss?
Almost 20 years ago, I was terminated from my job for performance issues. And I absolutely should have been. I had no idea about the stress I had put on my boss, how much of her time I took up, and the truly awkward position in which I put her. She really didn’t want to fire me; I gave her no choice. In the intervening years, I’ve had to manage people’s performance issues, and I now know what it’s like to be on the other side of that desk. I feel like I owe my former manager an apology, an explanation, and an expression of gratitude for what she ultimately did for me. I have been giving this a lot of thought lately. Would I be out of line if I reached out to her now and told her the full story?….
Leadership & Vulnerability
Being vulnerable and empathetic does not mean you have to share your deepest, most personal secrets and let them all hang out. It means letting your guard down, putting pretenses aside, admitting mistakes, and being yourself. People can tell when you are being disingenuous. The stench of disingenuity and duplicity lingers in the atmosphere. By being open and honest, vulnerable leaders are better able to engage with staff, which inevitably leads to increased productivity, improved morale, faster conflict resolution, and improved recruiting and retention outcomes….
How to Know if the Hiring Manager Is a Jerk
Having a great boss can create an environment in which people don’t only grow in their roles but expand. Having a bad boss can ruin everything and make you dread going to work. Bad bosses cause stress, anxiety, uncertainty, and the Sunday blues. Low engagement is a problem across virtually every organization, primarily due to bad management. Bad managers run the gamut from those who don’t delegate work to those who are outright toxic human beings; bad managers exist in 100% of companies….
The Secret to Being a Great Manager & Motivating Employees
Perhaps the top complaint that managers have about their employees is a lack of engagement among employees and a disconnect between the employees’ work and company/team goals. If we peel this back a bit further, what is revealed is that there is all too often a fundamental divide between employees’ values and those held by management. I’m not talking about corporate or “core” values; I’m talking about the values and priorities that managers and executives embody on the daily….
Work anywhere, but at what cost?
The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic continues to challenge long-held assumptions and redefine the very idea of what work is. Ultimately, this pandemic has revealed that much of which we regarded as “business as usual” was, in actuality, little more than micromanagement….
What’s in a name? Pretty much everything.
Names have significance. They have power. They are an incredibly important part of one’s identity; they have personal, cultural, and historical connections. They give us a sense of who we are, and they identify us to others….
Talent – where have all the good people gone?
The most pressing challenge for any organization that wishes to remain competitive is access to the right talent with skills and experiences critical to achieving aggressive goals. The cost of a poor hiring decision can be significant—sometimes even exceeding the compensation for the role. This is part of why companies have become increasingly cautious (and bureaucratic and byzantine) in their hiring decisions. I speak with hundreds of people who sit on both sides of the hiring desk in my work. What I can say without hesitation is that there is an enormous disconnect between candidate and hiring company expectations. One of the most frequent complaints from candidates is that the hiring process is broken. Simultaneously, the most frequent complaint of hiring managers is the “skills gap”—a fundamental mismatch between the skills that employers rely upon in their employees and the skills that job seekers possess….