7 Questions to Ask When Setting Team Goals

7 Questions to Ask When Setting Team Goals Takeaways: If youre working with a team, you probably had a meeting to set your  goals for 2015 as its right around the corner. But are you sure youve done it correctly? Asking the right questions will bring the right answers, and the right path to follow for your team. Have a look at this brilliant infographic for a few tips. Takeaways: 80% of business owners dont track their business goals. Are your goals SMART? You have 80% more chance to achieve your goals when you write them down. Specific difficult goals are positively correlated to improved performance. Let employees set their goals so they are more committed to their work. RELATED:  5 Essential Steps to Develop Your Team Infographic created by folks at Weekdone, the better team management tools company.

Ways to Manage Your Stress in Your First Job Out of College

Ways to Manage Your Stress in Your First Job Out of College Finding that first career job right out of college is a huge accomplishment. It shows you that all that hard work you put into your education was truly worth it. It’s normal to head into your new job filled with high hopes, aspiration, and plenty of enthusiasm but each of those can take a real beating once the stress of career life kicks in. Obviously, you want to do your best to manage your stress at work so as to do a good job, but managing it at home is also important for your own health and sanity. Here’s a look at some tips you can use that will help you manage the stress that comes along with landing your first career job out of college. It’s Time to Focus on Healthy Eating College students are notorious for enjoying those quick meals and living off snacks. You’ve just gone through a time period where you would be up long hours studying, attending classes, and probably also trying to fit a part-time job in there. While it may seem like your schedule would be more open now since you only have your one full-time job, the fact is that the one job can be more stress than everything else was combined. Healthy eating will give you the nutrients you need to focus, keep your energy level up high, and function at your best level. It will also help to keep your body healthy and strong so you can better fight off germs. Include Daily Exercise Regular exercise of 30 minutes three to five times a week can do absolute wonders for your mood and your energy level. When you exercise you are releasing endorphins, which make you feel good. Its like that little pick me up that you need. It also keeps your body healthy and strong in a general sense. Get Away from It All Sometimes what you really need is a break from your everyday routine. When your life is filled with nothing but work and outside responsibilities, it can really start to drag you down emotionally and physically. That’s why it can be great to take a mini-break, even if it’s just for a couple of days. Camping can be the perfect solution for many. It’s relatively easy to plan, you don’t have to travel far, it allows you to enjoy some time outdoors and refresh your body and mind, you can go on a solo trip or with friends, and it forces you to push work out of your mind all together. If you put a little research into shopping for anything from the essentials to your favorite sporting goods, you’ll even be able to find a 9mm for sale under 200 at the popular online store â€" Woodbury Outfitters. Balancing It All Finding ways to manage your stress levels in your first career job straight out of college can be a challenge and take a little practice, but once you find your way it will be a much more enjoyable path.

12 Effective Fixes for Common Personal Branding Mistakes - Personal Branding Blog - Stand Out In Your Career

12 Effective Fixes for Common Personal Branding Mistakes - Personal Branding Blog - Stand Out In Your Career Whats one thing Im probably getting wrong with my personal brand and how do I fix it? The following answers are provided by members of  Young Entrepreneur Council (YEC), an invite-only organization comprised of the worlds most promising young entrepreneurs. In partnership with Citi, YEC recently launched  BusinessCollective, a free virtual mentorship program that helps millions of entrepreneurs start and grow businesses. 1. Keep Your Personal Search Reputation in Check Have you Googled yourself? You should have control of at least the top 10 assets when you do, and they should all paint you in a positive light. If thats not true, build them up further and interlink them a bit until that is true. After youve done this, pop over to BrandYourself and monitor to make sure these  searches stay that way using  their free trial.    Corey Northcutt,  Northcutt Inbound Marketing   2. Check if You Have too Much Marketing and Not Enough Entertainment The biggest mistake people make in building their personal brand is trying to fill everything with helpful, actionable information and not creating enough mindless entertainment. In this world, value is measured by filling time. Often a viewers brain is so full of info, they just want to sit back and watch and not have to learn anything else.    Carter Thomas,  Bluecloud Solutions   3. Dont Overpolish Yourself Over-editing our own statements and using formal professional photos on Facebook will definitely make you look serious and legitimate, but if youre not taking the raw nature of social platforms and other platforms used for personal branding into account, youre missing the mark. Strike a balance between poise and being a real human with flaws. Its hilarious that we must be reminded of this.    Sharam Fouladgar-Mercer,  AirPR   4. Dont Spread Yourself Too Thin on Social Media Its almost impossible to be active on every social media platform. Rather than spreading yourself too thin, find your most effective three platforms and put all of your efforts into those. As your brand grows, you can hire someone to manage your social  media and introduce additional platforms. Focus on the areas where you are receiving the most attention and engagement.    Jonathan Long,  Sexy Smile Kit   5. Complement Your Personal Brand to Your Professional Brand If youre managing a personal and a professional brand, the two messages must complement each other. Who you are as a business must correspond to who you are as an individual. Make sure your messages are consistent with  your mission and vision, both professionally and personally. Stay away from conflicting messages that show your personal brand in a different light from your professional brand.    Nicole Munoz,  Start Ranking Now   6. Get a Personal Website Each person should have an up-to-date personal website or LinkedIn profile. These are  the first results that come up in Google search, and you want to control  what is written there. Its incredibly simple to create a website through Squarespace or Wix. LinkedIn is even easier to sign up and get started.    Adelyn Zhou,  TOPBOTS   7. Get a Better Headshot The most basic thing people get wrong about their personal brand is having a low-quality profile picture or inconsistent images. Having the same high-quality image across all your different social media profiles sends a consistent message about your personal brand.    Tim Chaves,  ZipBooks   8. Ditch the Stock Photography If you want to connect with your reader, an employer or a company, your blog needs to give a feel for who you are. Personalize it. Do a photo shoot or come up with a cool avatar that you can animate. Make sure your blog offers different engagement styles that highlight your personality so visitors see it as more than just words on a page.    Dan Golden,  BFO (Be Found Online)   9. Have a Clear Bio Your personal brand is a business, and a business usually has a tagline associated with it that describes what it does. However, so many  personal brands are often lacking this vital component. Are you an author, speaker and CEO? Are you a scientist, chef or outer space enthusiast? Whatever it is, put it under your name to constantly remind people what youre all about!    Beth Doane,  Main Rose   10. Be Authentic Be 100 percent congruent with who you are. Share all dimensions  of yourself and stand for what you truly believe. Even if people don’t agree with you, you’ll be admired for your courage and your authenticity. As for those who push back against you, these are people who don’t belong in your tribe, anyway. Against common belief, polarizing is good. Trying to change to please everyone will make you inauthentic.    Ajit Nawalkha,  Mindvalley   11. Theres a Lack of Outreach My biography is known to anyone willing to listen and interested in learning about how I overcame certain obstacles. Ive had better ROI from revealing myself (warts and all) in an honest QA or by participating on Quora. A lot of entrepreneurs should embrace their own story so that it fits with whatever project theyre working on. Ive seen entrepreneurs like Oprah do it. It really works!    Cody McLain,  SupportNinja   12. Know Who Your Audience Is Your personal brand is about what you can provide to others, not about why youre the greatest person in the world. The people who stand out demonstrate proficiency in their space without a lot of self-aggrandizing, instead focusing on tangible benefits they have provided their audience. Put yourself in their shoes and remove anything that doesnt resonate. Remember  to be personable and human!    Jeff Jahn,  DynamiX  

3 Small Changes At Home That Will Help Any Busy Businesswoman

3 Small Changes At Home That Will Help Any Busy Businesswoman Having a career and family life can be challenging for any woman.   You can feel like you are being torn in different directions by both work and family obligations that it can be hard to stay focused on both quality time with your husband and kids and juggling a successful career. Luckily there is hope in the form of some simple changes you can make in your home life that will make your life easier and more manageable so you can stay focused in the office too.   By making these 3 small changes at home, your busy professional self can stay focused at the office. Getting Organized Staying organized at the office can be a lot easier than staying organized at home.   When you are home, you may have your partner or kids interrupting you and you may feel more like a maid than anything else.   Cleaning and organizing your home can improve your health and coming home to an organized space (especially if you work from home at times) can create less mind clutter for you so you can focus on family and work with a clearer head.   The less time you spend searching around for car keys or your missing cell phone means more time spent on family and career. Keeping Your Stress Under Control When we are stressed, a lot of damage can be done.   We can take out stress on our family or co-workers which has negative impacts on both professional and personal relationships.   Being stressed can also allow for our bodies to break down which means missing work deadlines and being stuck in bed. If work or home life is stressing you out, take a little time before or after a busy day at work and do something that relaxes you.   You can try 10 minutes of meditation to destress in the morning before you head into the office or walk your dog when you get home after a busy day.   Keeping stress levels down will help give you a level head in your professional life. Meal Prep The last thing that you want to do after a busy day at work is to make a time consuming meal for your family that will take an hour to make and mere minutes to eat.   Take every Sunday (or whatever day of the week works best for you) and dedicate it to meal planning and prepping for the week ahead. Yes, grocery shopping and prepping meals for the entire week may seem daunting, but it will save you so much time throughout the week.   Eating healthy is also important as it will help fuel your energy levels so you can get more done around the house and at the office so dedicate a little time to researching healthy recipes online to prepare for you and your family. By implementing these 3 small changes in your daily home life, it will be easier to stay focused while you are working.   Getting organized, managing your stress, and meal prep will save you a lot of headaches when you get home each day from work.   You can focus on family while being able to concentrate while you are at the office too. . Images via pixabay.

#10 Career Expert Series David Shindler from Learning to Leap

#10 â€" Career Expert Series David Shindler from Learning to Leap The Career Insider Podcast Apple Podcasts | Android | Email | Google Podcasts | Stitcher | TuneIn | RSSFor This Episode of The Career Expert Series â€" we will be hearing from David Shindler, who is the Founder of Learning to Leap and The Employability Hub.The Topic of today’s discussion is How Young Professionals can make a Successful Transition to the Workplace.Episode Summaryevaleval1. The importance of having clarity when starting your career.2. Experience trumps advice. Why too much information/advice may not necessarily be a good thing?3. How to translate previous volunteer experience into tangible soft skills, when transitioning to the workplace.4. The importance of having the right attitude and how it translates into the right behaviors.5. Employability is about life-long ability to be relevant, translating that into having the right fit; and to deliver value to your employer.6. Things to do to increase Employability â€" personal development, experimentation,etc.7. The Rul e of 5 in Networking â€" reach out to the 5 closest people in your network, and then expand.LinksevalTo learn more about David Shindler visit his website ; and also David’s book on the subject.Intro Music provided courtesy of Accelerated Ideas (www.accelerated-ideas.com). Soundtrack â€" Siren KickbackEnding Music provided courtesy of Accelerated Ideas (www.accelerated-ideas.com). Soundtrack â€" No Need to Rush

4 Signs That You Are Ready To Start Your Own Business - CareerEnlightenment.com

4 Signs That You Are Ready To Start Your Own Business Many people dream of one day launching their own business, but this is no small undertaking. Launching a business before you are ready is a route fraught with peril and potential pitfalls. Below are four signs that you are ready to take the plunge.You Are Passionate About Your WorkStarting your own business is always a challenging endeavor. Most businesses will fail during their first year. In order to maximize your chances of success, you need to be truly dedicated to your business venture. A half-hearted attempt at launching a new business is a bad idea and unlikely to lead to long-term success.It is simply too difficult to juggle the many pressures of being a business owner if your heart is not in it. Unless you are truly passionate about the business that you are going to be starting, trying to lead a business yourself is only going to be opening the door on an excessive amount of stress and worry.On the other hand, if you are really passionate about the field that you work in, the work you do often doesnt feel like work. The best position that you can possibly be in professionally is to be paid to do what you would be doing anyway.Thats not to say that passion alone will be enough to overcome the challenges you face as a business owner. On the contrar y, while having a passion definitely helps, dont think that it will translate into an easy ride for you and your business.You Feel Like You Aren’t Being ChallengedTheres nothing worse professionally than having to go to a job every day that you do not enjoy. If you are feeling like your professional career is beginning to stagnate and you arent making any progress on a personal or professional level, it can be seriously demotivating.If a job that you previously enjoyed is no longer challenging you or enriching you as a person then it may be time to look elsewhere.When you own and manage a business, there is little chance of you not being challenged on a daily basis. Sure, after a few years of successful operation, maybe you will be able to step back and just let the money roll in. However, the only way that you are ever going to reach that point is if you work hard and are truly dedicated to your business. Want to Read More Articles Like This One?Sign up here to receive weekly updates from Career Enlightenment, and never miss another powerful job searching tip! SUBSCRIBE! You have Successfully Subscribed!We hate spam too. Unsubsc ribe any time. You Have An Idea You Can’t ShakeAfter working in the same industry or profession for a number of years, many people will begin to have their own ideas as to how things should be done. If you cant help but look around the marketplace that you work in and see bad decisions and short-sighted behavior all around, then it might be time to start your own business and address these shortcomings in the market.In order for a new business to be successful, it either needs to offer something that other businesses arent, or it needs to offer what other businesses are offering but better or cheaper. No business is going to survive by providing an inferior level of service to its competitors.It is therefore important that you dont confuse a novel idea with a good idea. You may think that you have the perfect business proposition ready to go in your head, but just because you are looking at things differently does not necessarily mean that you are looking at them better.However, if you truly have confidence in your idea and you really think that you are onto a winner, then taking your idea and turning it into a tangible business can be an enthralling experience.You Are Thinking Like A Business OwnerOne of the most important indicators that you are ready to launch your own business is that you are starting to think not like a worker but as an owner. That means that you are looking beyond the surface, beyond the immediate interaction with customers and clients, and thinking about things at a deeper level and over the long-term.For example, when it comes to choosing suitable premises from which to run your business, a regular worker tasked with finding a suitable option would consider the cost of the rent and insurance and probably not consider things beyond this. On the other hand, a business owner will also recognize the existence of hidden costs.One such often overlooked cost when launching a new business is business utility prices. There are price comparison websites like Utility Bidder that will enable you to establish these prices easily. However, this is the kind of thing that only someone thinking as a business owner will consider.Once you find yourself thinking about things in this way, considering the bigger picture in every decision you make, this is a good sign that you are ready to take on your own business.When you are ready to launch your own business, you will know. Launching a business is always going to be challenging, but when you are ready to take on that challenge, it is a hugely rewarding endeavor.

6 Marketing Resume Skills That Will Help You Land That Job

6 Marketing Resume Skills That Will Help You Land That JobTo build a winning marketing resume skills, you must have everything down on paper. Without that, you cannot launch your career in the business world. There are several areas that need to be addressed for a winning resume.How proficient are you at your skill level? If you are good at writing and a proof reader, you have most likely written hundreds of resumes. You have probably sent them out to several firms and received no feedback. When you write resumes that are mediocre, you will most likely receive poor feedback and the firms will not hire you.These skills also include the ability to write concise, professional resumes and cover letters. Companies seek to hire individuals who they know will communicate well. They do not want the hiring manager going through a long letter. Many times, employees in the position that is needed to communicate will simply use telepathy. There is nothing wrong with telepathy, but it does not he lp in a professional setting.Communication skills will most likely be needed when interviewing new employees. Even if you don't interview anyone for the position, you should make sure that you at least listen to what the new employee has to say. Many new employees are just frustrated and need to vent their frustrations to someone in order to get rid of their frustrations.While marketing and communications skills should not be equated, you should at least have some grasp of the basics. There are other skills that are needed, but you can get by with these. These skills are not as important as the business skills, but they are important to ensure that you know how to effectively communicate.Marketing and communications skills may seem simple and basic, but they are often undervalued. A resume does not have to be perfect in order to get hired. Often, many people are just lazy and don't put much effort into them. You should do more than send an average resume to a big firm.Do not let you r resume's fall off the wall and just sit there. If your resume does not get picked up, you will not get the job you were looking for. If you have been around long enough, you should have a name for this particular tactic. It is called 'spam.'You should think about the job you want to get with the company that is sending you resumes. Ask them about their industry and see if you are qualified to get that job. You can find out more information on how to get a job online. It is easy and free.