LinkedIn Networking Are You a LION, Cat or Mouse

LinkedIn Networking Are You a LION, Cat or Mouse There is no denying that LinkedIn is one powerful tool for networking, business development and word-of-mouth marketing. Those that use it frequently tend to sing the praises of LinkedIn all the way to the bank. There is however a few different schools of thought as to how one should use LinkedIn. 1) Open networker (or LION): LION stands for Linked In Open Networker, or just open networker. These people are totally open in their approach to networking and will accept any invitation. The idea here is to connect to as many people as possible in order to reach out to more people. A larger network is particularly useful when prospecting for leads and doing research on people and companies. An open networker will publicize their LinkedIn URL at any chance to entice others to send invitations. As a LION, you will be expected to accept invitation from complete randoms and usually their friends as well. If you are not comfortable with this, you will probably want to pick another strategy. Open networkers will have the largest networks, usually well over a thousand first connections. As you cannot see how many connections people have beyond the 500 mark, we can only guess how large some of the true LIONs networks are. Ron Bates claims to have over 44,000 connections and if you are a prolific member of LinkedIn I would venture to guess he has invited you as well (not sure how he does it!). By the way, you may want to read Karalyn Browns article Why I Think I Regret Becoming an Open Networker before you plunge into being a LION. 2) Professional networker (lets call this mouse): Relationships Matter, as the LinkedIn  tag line  goes.  This is what I believe LinkedIn was intended for, professionals connecting up to further each others’ careers. This would be the most typical LinkedIn user. A salesperson would connect to his or her clients, the client would connect to their suppliers etc. You don’t actually have to have met the other person but you will have dealt with them and deem there is a value being connected for both your careers. Professional networkers will normally have anything from 200 to one thousand connections. 3) Exclusive networker (or cat): This category of people will only ever connect to people they know well, trust and respect. This type of network is likely to be very selective and can be drawn upon for passing on introductions and recommendations. You could say that the exclusive networker is actually not increasing their connections, merely storing them digitally on LinkedIn. There can be several reasons for wanting to be an exclusive networker, keeping your connections and activities confidential is certainly a major one. While most recruiters are open or professional networkers, some choose to stay exclusive for the simple reason that they don’t want their clients to know what other clients they speak to or they don’t want to bring attention to hot candidates in the market by connecting to them. Yes, you can change your settings more private but your connections can still see who you are connected to in common for instance. Exclusive networkers will rarely have more than 200 connections, remember that these are tight relationships formed over the years. Bottom line: Whatever type of networker you choose to be will be dependent on what the purpose of your LinkedIn membership is. Some industries might favor one type, I wouldn’t expect anyone working for secretive government agencies to be open networkers for instance. I would however expect anyone that represents the “Canadian Pharmacy” we have all learned about in our webmail accounts to be a very open networker. It’s worth bearing in mind that if you put your LinkedIn URL on your email signature, blog or business card, you are expected to accept invitations from people you deal with. So in case you would like to be an exclusive networker, keep the URL to yourself. This goes for phone numbers, your primary email address as well. Even if you are an open networker, you will probably not want every random having your primary email and direct telephone number. It’s also worth noting that as with most things, most people start out with the greatest intentions. They try and stick to exclusive networking at first. They then realize it takes time to build up a strong network this way and increasingly become professional and sometimes even open (LION) networkers over time. The nature of the beast that is LinkedIn dictates that you do benefit from more connections as it allows you to see more people in your searches. RELATED:  Are You a Super Connector on LinkedIn?

Im in the New York Times, for better or worse

Im in the New York Times, for better or worse If you are coming here because you read the article about blogging about divorce in the New York Times, here is a road map to this blog: The blog is primarily about careers but when my family life relates to that topic, I write about my family. Here are posts about my divorce: My first day of marriage counseling July 5, 2007 (183 comments) Five communications lessons learned in marriage counseling November 28, 2007 (90 comments) A case study in staying resilient: my divorce February 27, 2008 (116 comments) Here are posts about other aspects of my family life: An unexpected lesson about procrastination January 1, 2007 (22 comments) Five steps to taming materialism, from an accidental expert August 7, 2007 (88 comments) Blending my kids and my career (not really) June 7, 2007 (45 comments) I actually feel misquoted in the Times today. For example, I dont blame my divorce on my son. But Ive written before that if you talk to the press, you should expect to be misquoted, so this is a dose of my own medicine: Why journalists misquote everyone If you want to comment to me about the New York Times article, you can do it on this post.

Can Working Vacations Really Work

Can Working Vacations Really Work The American workforce has long operated under an unofficial motto: Work hard, play hard. But lets be honest, the work half of that equation always seems to have the upper hand. Compared to workers in other countries, American employees receive a paltry number of paid vacation days each year. For example, employees in Germany and Canada average 29 days of PTO per year, while workers in the United Kingdom, Japan and China average 28, 18 and 16 days, respectively. Meanwhile, the average U.S. employee gets just 10 days of PTO every year. This is likely tied to the fact that, unlike most other industrialized countries, the U.S. has no federally-mandated minimum for vacation days, leaving employers to decide how many days they will allow employees to take off. However, this isnt just a problem of law, its also a problem of culture. In 2017, only 53 percent of employees emptied their PTO bank, meaning that 47 percent shunned part or all of their vacation time to stay on the job. The reasons people cited for doing this included feeling overwhelmed with deadlines, not wanting to fall behind on assignments, feeling pressured by management not to take time off, and feeling they couldnt financially afford to travel. In short, American workers feel stressed and overworked, and they continue to feel this way despite conclusive research showing that vacations improve all aspects of health and boost productivity in the workplace. Will Work For Vacation But what if U.S. employees could truly begin to embody the mantra of working hard and playing hard? In recent years, workcations and bleisure travel have been rising in popularity, both with employers and employees. This concept blends work with travel, adventure, and flexible schedules, and it can be embraced as an occasional job perk or as a totally immersive lifestyle. On one end of the workcation spectrum, there are companies that offer flexible and unlimited PTO, meaning employees can work remotely as much as they want so long as they continue to meet all of their job responsibilities. This could mean jet-setting as much as you like, as long as you’re willing to phone in for important conference calls and tend to any ongoing assignments while you’re away. Meanwhile, team building workcations are still very much a thing in the corporate world. But employers are getting more creative in their approach. Instead of just heading to the local Hilton for a weekend of seminars and awkwardly performed trust falls, many companies now encourage employee bonding by sending workers to faraway lands to enjoy theatre and museum tours, safaris and extreme sports. Some companies also try to help teams meet their performance goals by sending them to luxury resorts when an important deadline is looming. That way, they can problem solve while getting a hot stone massage. Workcation: All I Ever Wanted? This is not to suggest that everyone thinks workcations are a good idea. One company that pays its employees to go on vacation, Denver-based tech company FullContact, insists that they dont do any work while away, and opponents of the bleisure travel concept have called it the saddest sign of our times. But is it really? The idea of work/life balance has been around since the 1970s, and its very existence suggests that there has always been encroachment between the professional and personal spheres of a persons life. This encroachment is most often framed as a critical imbalance, something that must be corrected before someone can truly enjoy his or her life. For instance, how many movies feature workaholic lead characters who are accused of neglecting their families? While there is nothing wrong with hopping on a plane and completely disconnecting from work and responsibilities, in reality, 66 percent of Americans regularly work during their vacations. Maybe the answer isnt to staunchly defend the lines between work and play, but to blend them in ways that allow both to flourish. This could mean creating workplace cultures where taking care of the personal responsibilities of an employees life, such as attending a childs soccer game or taking a mental health day, are encouraged, facilitated and celebrated. This could, in turn, foster a culture where employees take vacations and crack open their laptops without feeling resentment or opening themselves up to accusations of familial neglect. This infographic about working vacations explains how some modern companies are rethinking work/life balance: About the Author: Reservations.com is an award-winning travel search engine on a mission to bring the human touch back into the world of online travel. With a robust database of more than 500,000 hotels worldwide, Reservations.com offers unparalleled visibility into hotels through easy-to-navigate descriptions, pricing information, and reviews.

Occitan Imports Woman-Owned, Home-based, eCommerce Business

Occitan Imports Woman-Owned, Home-based, eCommerce Business Looking at already successful, women-owned businesses can provide excellent inspiration for you if you’re a woman who hopes to launch a business. In the small, home-based, multi-channel ecommerce market, Occitan Imports is an outstanding example. The style, backstory, and woman behind this company make for an inspiring paradigm for aspiring female entrepreneurs. Occitan Imports: French Tablecloths and Laguiole Cutlery Occitan Imports is a multi-channel ecommerce operation that’s woman-owned and run entirely from home. It provides French tablecloths and Laguiole cutlery at great prices. Each piece is of high quality and made by hand in the Provence region of France. The firm is designed to mimic a niche-specific French outdoor market, but online. This unique business is owned and operated by Laurence Bertone. She was born in France (where Laurence is a reasonably common girl’s name; it helps that in French it’s pronounced “lo-RAWNCE”), and she wanted to bring the charm of French marketplaces to everyone. When she’s asked how she came up with the idea for her unique and popular ecommerce platform, Laurence says, “I grew up in southern France, and always loved going to the outdoor markets in the villages of Provence, where you can always find beautiful Provençal table linens. Then I moved to the United States and I wanted to make authentic French Provençal table linens available to people in the US.” Building a Home-Based, Multi-Channel eCommerce Organization Instead of going the traditional route of a retail outfit that includes a brick-and-mortar shop placed in a prime (but pricey) location in a large city, Laurence decided that a multi-channel ecommerce platform would be preferable. “I knew that the only way for me to access a nationwide market was to focus on Internet-based retail (e-commerce), so I put all my resources into building an on-line store (presence) rather than into a physical ‘brick and mortar’ retail store,” she said. “I also saw that more and more people were (and are) shopping online rather than in traditional retail stores.” At the time, the budding entrepreneur was also a full-time mom, so she would consider the idea of having to leave her kids for long periods of time to chase a dream. “I felt that the only way I could run a business and be a fully engaged Mom was to run the business out of my home I wanted to be at home for my kids,” she explains. Thus, Occitan Imports opened for business, to service shoppers with an eye for beautiful, unique pieces with a decidedly French theme … all from her home. Plunging into the Unknown Laurence was excited about the challenge and opportunity of bringing the best of the French marketplace to the US, but it obviously wasn’t easy. Like most new business owners, she had a fear of failure and a shaky uncertainty about the ultimate success of her operation. “I think the biggest challenge was really just overcoming the fear of the unknown and the fear of failure starting a business from scratch, with your own money, is kind of like diving off a cliff into the ocean for the first time you just have to close your eyes and jump,” she said. “When I started my business, I really had absolutely no idea whether I would ever sell anything at all, let alone become successful (profitable).” Luckily for Laurence, she wasn’t a failure. Her unique platform grew swiftly, and has delighted customers all over the nation, including in Rhode Island, Texas, Colorado, Florida, Arizona, and California. It’s a full-service ecommerce business that stretches from coast to coast. Challenges of Female Entrepreneurship When asked about the biggest challenges of getting a business launched by a woman, Laurence didn’t refer to the gender pay gap or extra effort required to triumph. Instead, she spoke of something that’s dear to many female entrepreneurs’ hearts: the struggle of balancing motherhood with ambitions for commercial success. “It was a challenge to balance the needs of my business against the needs of my family (husband and kids),” she explained. “Being a wife and a mother is a full-time job, and my natural instinct as a mother was (and is) to put the needs of my children above everything else. So, as a mother, you always feel a little bit ‘guilty’ when you are focusing on your business rather than focusing on your kids 100 percent of the time.” Ultimately, Laurence figured out a way to make the demands of her firm work in harmony with the needs of her children, and now she provides a great example to women and mothers everywhere who want to start a business but aren’t sure if they can. In closing, Laurence wanted to offer a piece of advice to any busy mom or woman in the industry who hopes to start a business from home: “Bringing my passion to the world and being a great example for my kids has always been very important to me, and that’s what drives me to make Occitan Imports a success. Any woman can do the same if she will hold on to her passion and won’t let negative influences drag her down.”

Bounce Back from Redundancy in 5 Steps

Bounce Back from Redundancy in 5 Steps Redundancy affects employees across the world and can be a deeply distressing experience. However it is possible to turn the situation around to a positive and open yourself up to new opportunities.CV writing service StandOut CV have provided this visual advice piece showing 5 steps to bouncing back from redundancy and emerging unscathed.Once you have learned of your redundancy, the first step is to ensure that you know exactly what you will entitled to in the lead up to your departure.evalHave a meeting with your line manager and look to confirm your notice period, redundancy package and any support to be provided.Do some research online and learn your current value in the marketplace by finding out which companies are hiring, which of your skills are in demand and what sort of remuneration you can expect.Update your CV (Resume) with the experience gained from your current role and be sure to make your most in-demand attributes prominent to the reader.Promote yourself actively in th e job market by uploading your CV to CV databases, applying for jobs regularly and networking on LinkedIn.When it comes to interview stage, preparation is key so practice answering common questions and pitching your skills.Reprinted with permission from Standout-cv.com

Tagged - The Chief Happiness Officer Blog

Tagged - The Chief Happiness Officer Blog Mike Wagner of Own Your Brand tagged me for the 4-meme thats going around. Seems more contagious than bird flu :o) So here goes trivia about me: Four jobs I?ve had Clueless part-time sales guy at Bilka electronics (a supermarket) Programmer for BangOlufsen. Was there 6 months, never got to program a single line of code Co-founder and consultant at Enterprise Systems CHO (Chief Happiness Officer) The last two were almost too much fun to qualify as work. They were more in the nature of play Four movies I could watch over and over The Matrix (coolest movie) Love actually (happiest movie) Koyaanisqatsi (most beautiful movie) Life of Brian (funniest movie) In fact, its best never to quote Monty Python around me I may be difficult to stop, once I get started :o) Dead parrot, anyone? Four places I have lived Tunis, Tunisia Las Palmas, Spain Odense, Denmark Copenhagen, Denmark Four TV shows I love to watch Battlestar Galactica Lost The Daily Show The Simpsons Though our TV is in the closet most of the time and usually only comes out for important national soccer games. You can follow all of these shows on bittorrent. Battlestar Galactica is especially good. The season finale last week showed why: Great writing, great characters, great dialogue, and you never know whats coming next. Lost is almost as good, and more addicitve than crack. Four places I have been on holiday Florida Cedar Point Phillipines Paris What can I say, Im an adrenaline junkie, and roller-coasters are a great way to get that rush. Four websites I visit daily Creating passionate users Tveskov.com Google (duh!) digg.com Four of my favorite foods 1. Spaghetti Bolognese (or simply bolo at our place) 2. Sushi 3. Burgers from Five Guys 4. Kellogs Frosties Four places I would rather be right now Snowboarding in the alps (and a week from now I will be) London. Cooool city. Tokyo. Never been there really, really want to. Beijing. Never been there really, really want to. Though I gotta say Im also pretty happy right here, right now :o) And four bloggers I am tagging Patricia Hansen of Patricia OnLine, if she?ll accept, because she is such a wonderful person. And girlfriend. Stephen Shapiro of Goal-free living, if he?ll accept, because I enjoyed meeting him in DC and get a real kick out of the whole goal-free approach. Bernie deKoven of Bernies FunLog, if he?ll accept, because I truly admire his deep knowledge and practice of play. Solveig Haugland of openoffice.blogs.com, if she?ll accept, because I admire her style, her writing and her dedication to open source. Thanks for visiting my blog. If you're new here, you should check out this list of my 10 most popular articles. And if you want more great tips and ideas you should check out our newsletter about happiness at work. It's great and it's free :-)Share this:LinkedInFacebookTwitterRedditPinterest Related

Reviews of Resume Writing Group - What They Are and Why You Should Use Them

Reviews of Resume Writing Group - What They Are and Why You Should Use ThemThe main thing you want to know about is what the reviews of resume writing group are. Well, that is actually a very common misconception in this day and age. People think that the reviews of resume writing group are useless because if people are giving them a bad review then that means that they have nothing valuable to say about the resume writing service.The truth is that most of the postings will actually have numerous reviews of resume writing group. You can visit several websites that are dedicated to the service and check out the reviews that are there.As far as you are concerned this means that you can read through them and really get to know what is good and what is not so good about them. And you will also get the benefit of knowing how to make your own resume. With this in mind you will have a lot more confidence in the end.You may even find out that the writers of these posts have written positive reviews as well. This means that there are quite a few very good people who are working for resume writing group.You need to ensure that you do not let your own opinion be ignored when you are working on your resume. This is because people can easily misrepresent the work you do.Writing a resume is not easy but it does not mean that you should not try to be a writer. You will learn a lot of things about yourself and all the other members of the writing group by simply reading and observing the work of the individual writers who post their reviews of resume writing group.Resume writing group is not for everyone because some of them have fake names and have no credentials. However if you are looking for an option to get an online resume writing job then this will definitely help you in your quest.