“The most important thing: Get to know and care about the people you are leading/managing. Who are they, what they like and don’t like, what they are most proud of, what their strengths and weaknesses are, how they see themselves contributing to the overall success of the organization, etc. Leaders make more leaders and realize that results are achieved through people, not task lists. If you don’t know your people, they won’t do their best for you. Read Leadership and Self-Deception for more food for thought on seeing people as people.
Every day we hear little lies within our minds. We often tell ourselves that we’re not good enough, we don’t have the money, or that no one cares about us. You may not realize this. But those words are lies! These lies are what hold us back as we progress in our leadership. We tell ourselves these things so we’ll have excuses as to why we’re not getting things done or leading better. There’s some bad news and then there’s some good news. Let’s go over the bad news first. The Bad News I like to start with bad news
Internships are a must these days. Internships are becoming the best way to strengthen your job prospects. With statistics showing high rates ofunemployment and underemployment (in other words, you have a degree and you’re working in a job that doesn’t require one) for recent college grads, a key way to distinguish yourself in the job market, beyond pursuing an in-demand field is to get relevant experience. Interning is a great way to do this. 3 Steps to an Internship Game Plan I highly recommend the book, All Work, No Pay, to help you get an internship game plan, but here are
Informational interviews and job shadowing are great ways to be briefly exposed to a career field you are interested in by interacting with someone in the role. In the student career coaching we do, our package offers arrangement of at least one job shadowing opportunity. This is how valuable we feel this component to career exploration really is. The difference between the two is that an informational interview is just a conversation with the person in the job. It allows you to ask the person questions about how they got where they are, what the like (and don’t like) about
“Your daughter really stepped up to be a leader with all the kids today,” says one mother. “Really?” asks the other, “She wasn’t being bossy was she?” Why do we think as parents, and especially with girls, when our child steps up to take charge of a situation that they are being bossy? I heard a similar dialogue with a dear friend of mine, who is one of the best, if not the best mother I know. Her oldest daughter, who is a smart, caring and leaderful girl, stepped up to engage kids of all ages, who all really didn’t