3 Tips to Encourage Collaboration Between Departments

3 Tips to Encourage Collaboration Between Departments Collaboration is hard, even within a team. Across multiple teams and across multiple departments? That’s a near-impossible task in some organizations. Sales people might distrust the inputs from marketing people, or HR might regard the IT team with suspicion. But it’s the ability to collaborate â€" to be creative and to solve problems together â€" that distinguishes top companies. Their teams share knowledge and inspire one another daily. For managers and executives, the onus is on you to create a culture in which communication, transparency and collaboration thrive. Here are three tips for tearing down the silos in your own organization. Empathy and understanding are the foundations of collaboration Victoria  Crispo writes at Idealist Careers. When you work across departments and learn each one’s motivations and how it relates to the whole organization, you may gain a feeling of ‘we’re in this together’ among you and your coworkers (and perhaps ideas for communicating that message to your audience). That “we’re in this together” attitude is the very definition of a team â€" and that team spirit can become self-reinforcing. Once you understand the challenges and frustrations people in other departments are experiencing, you’ll develop the empathy necessary to be able to reach out and offer ways to help. That collective effort will translate into more meaningful results for the organization as a whole. It also helps to break down walls we all have built up inside of ourselves, i.e. our own biases. Joanna Schloss writes at CMSWire. True collaboration requires more than just a willingness to share. It also requires team members to acknowledge that what they share is inherently biased by the personal lens through which they see the world. Teasing apart those personal biases one-by-one gives everyone in the organization an increasingly clearer picture of how they can move their teams forward. Team leaders must encourage communication and internal transparency Of course, to first build that intra-departmental empathic connection, you must first get those particular challenges on other people’s radars. In other words, workflows and projects need internal transparency so team members elsewhere can get visibility into what’s going on. This is why I called out the sales-marketing misalignment earlier on; these teams often run into conflict in organizations because it’s not always clear to one what the other is doing. Some companies understand this and take intentional steps to avoid that disconnect. For example, SalesforceIQ, a small business CRM provider that started life as RelateIQ before being acquired by Salesforce, has members of its product and marketing teams sit in on sales calls to better understand customer questions. Would your sales team let someone from another department sit in on a call? If not, it would be good to know why. Practicing forgiveness: To err is to be human We all make mistakes. Sometimes, an engineer misses a bug in the software she’s building. Sometimes, a salesperson lets a lead go cold. These things happen, and recognition of this fact needs to be built into any organization’s operations. Workplace wellbeing teacher  Michelle McQuaid writes. Organizations with a forgiving culture have been found to experience more trusting alliances, social capital, workplace humaneness, customer care, and a sense of calling among employees.  Be it redefining failures as learning opportunities, seeking a higher purpose that provides personal meaning for employees, separating acts from people, providing environments of support or honoring fairness and equity, forgiveness allows people to heal, replenish and restore positive energy. In other words, be forgiving of mistakes, and treat everyone as the human beings they are. This leadership by example will set the tone for a more positive, empathic, collaborative culture for your entire organization. About the author: Casey Meehan is the founder of Stock Hax, where he shares trading news and tips for investors.  

Re.Vu - Visualising Your Linkedin Profile

Re.Vu - Visualising Your Linkedin Profile I found out about Re.Vu a few weeks ago through Twitter and immediately I knew I had to try it out. As a recent graduate, I have been exploring innovative ways of promoting myself and my CV over the last few months, especially through social media. Re.Vu is a simple tool that turns your CV into an infographic. Visualising your CV is a great way of showing creativity and diversity to prospective employers, and Re.Vu helps you do that effortlessly which makes it a great resource for graduates trying to stand out from the crowd in their job search. Re.Vu is FREE to use! Re.Vu is free which makes it perfect for students and graduates who struggle with their budget while on a job hunt. You can show youre creative and diverse in building and representing your brand without worrying about spending too much. The fact that Re.Vu is free makes it a useful tool for students and graduates who would like to build up online presence on multiple levels but lacking resources to do that. User Interface Re.Vus interface is straightforward and simple. You choose a username and a password, and your URL, and thats it. You cannot login with Twitter/Facebook or LinkedIn at the moment, but thats not a big issue as the logging in is really quick as it is. Understanding how Re.Vu works is made very easy by examples in every sections that you decide to fill in. So once you see the example, you can just choose the data youd like to see on your profile and voila! you have a visual infographic CV. Re.Vu is very easy to use you can import your LinkedIn profile and Re.Vu will automatically visualise the data. Alternatively, you can always enter your experience manually. You also have the options of adding your own detailed data about your skills and experiences and quantifying them. Re.Vu is also fun to use because you can play around and try out entering different data and visualising it. There are different sections, for example, you have a graph that shows the progression of your experiences in time. You can quantify some of your skills or achievements in percentages, others in a pie chart. With every section you have an example, so if youre struggling for ideas, theres always the example to direct you. Click on the image to see a live example in action If you think you cannot fill in all the sections in your first try, or if you feel you repeat yourself too much, then leave some sections blank, come back to them later. You can edit your Re.Vu profile at any point, adding/deleting/elaborating on your skills, achievements and experiences. Idea The idea of an infographic CV is not entirely new, but what Re.Vu does is pretty innovative. The simplicity of it makes it a great resource for anyone who seeks new ways of promoting  themselves and their experiences to employers. You can choose from different themes Re.Vu is still pretty basic and a lot could be added to it. We would definitely like to see more design options, especially when it comes to backgrounds/fonts/colours, etc. Re.Vu has got a section on analytics, where you can see how many people have viewed your profile. Theres also the option of sharing your Re.Vu page on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Google + which we really like as sharing your infographic is made extremely easy. We also like the social networks buttons under the profile photo as they stand out and allow readers to connect with you. Re.Vu Summary Re.Vu is a good resource for graduates and students, as it shows creativity in the way they market themselves in the graduate job market. We definitely recommend it as an addition to your LinkedIn profile as a professional CV tool. All the options at a glance There could be improvements made to make Re.Vu more professional, and more options given to users to personalise the content and appearance, but overall, we think Re.Vu is worth spending some time on. Its a tool that provides a free and easy way to visualise your CV, highlight your achievements and be creative in showcasing your strengths to prospective employers. If you like the idea of visualising your CV and if this review has made you want to try Re.Vu out, go on and sigh up. We would like to hear your thoughts and feedback so please comment below! 19

Seth Godins Tribes and Why The World Needs Personal Branding - Personal Branding Blog - Stand Out In Your Career

Seth Godins Tribes and Why The World Needs Personal Branding - Personal Branding Blog - Stand Out In Your Career Id like to begin by thanking Dan for giving me the opportunity to contribute to Personal Branding Blog, which I will be contributing to on Saturdays. I recently had a chance to read Seth Godins new book Tribes. My introduction to Tribes I was at my desk a few months back, when the CEO of my company sent an email saying that he was purchasing a copy of Seth Godins Tribes for anyone in the company who wanted to read it. Given that it was Godins new book, I was extremely eager to get my hands on it. In the book, Godin goes on to explain that the social media tools we have access to today, give people the ability to make a difference in their communities, workplaces, and the world. The book discusses how our world needs leaders now more than ever before, and explains how its easier now too. The world does need leaders, and while Tribes does a great job at explaining why, I think it could have done a better job at explaining how to execute. Personal branding enables tribe success A tribes success is only as successful as the people leading it. The part of Tribes that was missing was how you go about building a personal brand to allow you to effectively lead. Barack Obamas call that together we could change America, could not have been executed without his brilliant personal brand. Godins Tribes would have you believe that anybody could have done what Barack Obama did, but in reality, Barack Obama had YEARS of building his brand to the point where he could make a call for national change. Godin goes on to explain that his book is not a how-to, but with only broad mentions of leadership, and without much practical advice. I feel like the success of a tribe really comes down to how you tactically execute and build a brand over time. Passion drives us all, but it takes hard work to build up credibility, create a following, and to effectively champion an idea. This is one of the reasons personal branding has attracted me, and one of the reasons I believe Schawbels book, Me 2.0, will be successful. It will go into detail about how you build your personal brand, how you organize, and how communicate. Have a passion? I dont think its enough to lead. You need to lead with a plan. Author: Adam Salamon is Partnerships Director at Bazaarvoice, Inc., blogs about social media, entrepreneurship, and pop culture. Follow him on Twitter for daily updates.

Skill Selection The Key Ingredient to Cooking Up a Tasty CV

Skill Selection The Key Ingredient to Cooking Up a Tasty CV Everybody loves food, right? Right. Now that I have your attention, lets take a look at what cooking culinary treats  can teach us about creating careers. All workers rely on special tools to help them create masterpieces in their jobs. For chefs, its all about their knives.    They almost become part of them  throughout their careers, along with the accompanying sharpener. Without them, theyd be lost. For a chef, selecting a knife  not an easy task, and the answers dont come without a lot of research and effort. They have to sift through loads of alien terminology  and an overwhelming number of options, before finally finding which ones work best for them. And then theres the question of which knife for which dish? Its a rabbit hole and gets  expensive fast.  Does this sound familiar? If youre a job seeker, it probably does! How to select skills for your CV For job seekers, the most important tool is  their skill set, which is enhanced by  experience. Its then  a skill in itself to be  able to articulate in writing why youre the best person for the role (referencing this skill set), and be able to back  it up with examples. Tricky stuff. If I asked you to jot down 5 of your key skills, could you do it  easily? When selecting which skills highlight on your CV, job seekers need to think about the end goal and what sort of profile they want to create for each role they apply for. Just like a chef  or  cook a special dish and trying to find the right knife to help them pull it off, there is so much noise job seekers  have to cut through to find the best  choice. Ask five people or recruiters for feedback on how best to bring your experience alive, and you will  receive 5 different answers. The  advice is endless and the choice of which skills  to choose is challenging so  I suggest starting with three steps: 1. Brainstorm Use whatever gadget is handy, or a good old fashioned pen and paper and start writing down what you  believe are your core skills. Start with five and keep adding and remember to include both your  professional and personal life. Many people I meet do incredible things outside of work, I have met  professional musicians, football coaches, volunteers and many more and all of these activities come  with new and diverse skills. If you find this tough go back and think about what tasks you did daily in  your role. Ask colleagues or check your work appraisals. 2.  Rank Secondly once you have a list of ten or more get a red pen and circle the skills you enjoy the most. As a  cook, one of the things I enjoy is making something out of nothing.  This means finding random ingredients and bringing them together to create a meal.  This ranking process is  very important as it helps in your third and final step. 3. Elaborate Chefs rely on their knives to help them create masterpieces; the chopping, dicing or slicing is important  depending on the dish they plan to create. If they have created something nice they know they can do  something similar the next time. The same applies to your successes or achievements. Now is the  time to look at each of the skills highlighted in red. For each of the skills, can you remember something you  did that made you feel fantastic? A great way to make this easier is to break it down and think about a  situation you faced, the challenges involved and how you dealt with those challenges to create a  positive outcome. Example:  Your children told the school you were happy to make a cake for the  bake sale and forgot to tell you until the night before. Situation: No problem! you said, until you went  to the fridge to get the milk and realised there was not enough left. Challenge: There was no time to go to the store for  more so what to do? Action: You checked the fridge saw there was a bit of single cream, so you used  the cream and remainder of the milk and combined them together but you were still short! Given the  cream is thicker, you added some water and added it to the batter. The outcome was a cake that  looked and tasted amazing, your children were happy and you could relax. Result: This is a simple  example but if you apply the same process to documenting your key achievements and skills, then writing your CV and preparing for an interview will be easier. The choice is up to you. With chefs, the more they use their knives, the easier preparing the plate is and this principle  applies to all of us in the job-seeking process. Can you identify your core skills and achievements? If you take the time to  lay your foundations, the chances of finding the role you want increases! About the author:  Cindy Etsell is an author, career coach and marketer at  www.cookingupsuccess.co.uk.

Improving Your Productivity When Working in a Team of Two - CareerMetis.com

Improving Your Productivity When Working in a Team of Two Source: Pexels.comIf you have, like I have, been working as a freelancer for half your career, you know that it is at the same time the best and worst job in the world. Being accountable to yourself can be really demanding, depending on how lenient you are with yourself.Sadly, I no longer freelance, as it has turned into a full-time full-blown career in marketing, but I wanted to share a story from the time when I was still in the throes of freelancing, and started working with a partner.You may feel that as a freelancer you are destined to work alone forever â€" that need not be true.evalIn fact, if you find someone whom you can work with well, and who can complement your own strengths and weaknesses, you may have a nice little enterprise on your hands.A tiny bit of background: I am what you would call a marketing manager, meaning I come up with strategies and plans and campaigns and then execute them if need be.What I am not is a writer. I can write, obviously, don’t get me wrong , I can weave a story like any ol’ spider â€" but I can’t sell something with my writing.This is where Jemma comes in â€" we have worked together in the past, she can talk you into anything the way she writes, and we decided to join forces and apply for jobs together. Well, I would apply, and we would share the work, or vice versa. Together we could craft campaigns faster, more efficiently and achieve much better results.Working with someone else so closely naturally meant we had to come up with our own rules, but here is what we learned early on about being productive as a twosome.1. Divide and conquerStep one â€" you need to divide the work in a way that makes sense to both of you. That does not have to be based on what you do best at all times. On the contrary, if you do the same things over and over again, you may be stuck in a bit of a rut.If you step out of your comfort zone at times, you will first of all learn something new, and you will also challenge yourself and make work much more fun.evalMake sure you know at all times who is doing what. We had a sheet on the fridge detailing our daily tasks, andwe also had a calendar on Googlewhere we delegated everything This should have been the first thing I talked about. The most important things you need to learn and work on is communication. If the other person is not doing a good job, or if you need to take some time off, or if you simply feel frustrated, you need to be able to voice this.Even if you get into a full blown fight, you need to vent and speak your mind at all times.Working in a team of two means that when one of you is lagging, the other one needs to pick up the slack, as I said above. That can work marvelously, until one of you starts feeling they are doing all the heavy lifting, and this is where the partnership can snap like a twig.In order to avoid that, you simply need to be able to look the other person in the eye, and tell them what you feel. If you work with a friend, that can be d ifficult. But even if you don’t, you need to treat the conversation as a matter of business.It’s nothing personal, just business, as you’d hear it said in the Godfather.Don’t let things fester, it is in the best interest of both of you to talk things through.3. Think about the business side of thingsAgain, this could have been the first thing I mentioned. As a freelancer, you will face many unique challenges, but working as a part of an unregistered partnership can make things just a tiny bit more difficult.First of all, agree on the payment and how you are going to divide it. If one of you has a higher rate than the other, try to find a middle ground.You can put all the money on the table and divide it the way you feel would be best, or you can agree in advance how much is which activity and deliverable worth, and divide it like that.evalYou should also look into establishing a business addressâ€" even if you are working from the comfort of your kitchen table, you need to c ome off as pros.You also need to see about insurance and medical, but that is up to each of you individually.Agree on sick days â€" do both of you take a break, or does one of you pick up the slack. The same goes for holidays as well. Think up a working schedule that works for both of you. If the job demands that you should actually sit at the same table, don’t impose each other’s lives on each other.If you are working separately, make sure the other person knows what has happened. Don’tanswer each other’s emails â€" it usually does not turn out well.I hope this insight into my personal experience has helped you envision a different sort of freelance future for yourself.evalIf you can partner up with a writer, a designer, and SEO, whomever, you can tackle different jobs, biggerjobs, and thus increase both your own experience, and your revenues.Just make sure you don’t turn into enemies, because working so closely has that risk. Talk to each other, do some honest work, and watch your little enterprise take off.

Staying Connected With Customers, Clients And Employees Like A Boss

Staying Connected With Customers, Clients And Employees Like A Boss You’re in charge, which means you have a million and one things to do on a given day. There are meetings with clients, reviews of content and recruitment interviews to take care of before you think about going home. Time is precious and you don’t have much of it. So, when it comes to connecting with people, it’s easy to pass it off as unimportant. There are plenty of mediums and platforms for them to try â€" they don’t need you. Anyway, it can probably wait until the morning when you’re in the office. The truth is it can’t because of the culture. Customers, clients and even employees expect to deal with an issue as soon as possible, and when they can’t, they bounce. Staying connected around the board is essential yet tough as there aren’t enough hours in a day. Thankfully, the good news is you can make the most out of your limited interactions and here’s how. Stay In The Office Employees can’t walk outside and start doing their own thing while they’re the clock. If they did and you found out, there would be repercussions for sure. This is important to keep in mind when you are desperate to get out of the office. Yes, the Starbucks on the corner will offer some relief but it might come at a cost. When they or a client or customer has a problem, your workers won’t know how to get in touch. Sure, everybody has a phone yet subordinates are wary of messaging their boss when the subject isn’t pressing. However, the same doesn’t apply if you’re in the workplace. Most employees will walk up, knock on the door and ask for a minute. Working from behind a desk isn’t great but it’s a necessity if you want to keep your finger on the pulse. Tell Them Where You’ll Be And When Okay, you have to leave because there is a meeting scheduled. Plus, your brain might explode if you don’t get out now. Sometimes, there is no way around cutting out for a couple of hours even with the help of Skype conferences. Bosses that want stay connected should never exit stage left without forwarding their details first. The things you need to write down and pass on to the relevant people are your cell number, your social media accounts, and the times you’re unavailable. Also, make sure somebody knows who to get in touch with if they can’t contact you and need to desperately. The news might not be fresh, but at least you’ll hear it at the earliest possible time and will be able to react. Bosses that wait until they get back into the office are behind the eight ball because they’ve wasted time. As a last resort, leave your partner’s number. Usually, people pick up a call from their loved ones over their employees. Sync Your Devices Once upon a time, you could only receive messages dependant on the device in your hand. For example, smartphones didn’t get email alerts. You needed a desktop or a laptop. That has all changed now and there aren’t many forms of communication you can’t see via a mobile device. With that in mind, ensure everything from email accounts to social media apps are downloaded onto your cell. Another cool trick is to have any message come straight to your phone or tablet. Imagine a client or customer doesn’t have your cell number but has your email address and can’t get through due to a lack internet connection. The right business communication software will allow them to send an email which will land on your phone as an SMS. All you need is a phone signal and everyone will be able to contact you regardless of the mode of communication. Speak To The Connectors Connectors are people that others turn to for help and advice. They have the ear of everybody in the office and can disseminate information at will. All it takes is the right message and they’ll spread it like wildlife. With these people by your side, you’ll be able to connect with the entire office by communicating with a handful of people. As far as timesavers go, this is up there as one of the best. Ask your managers which employees are the go-to-guys and girls and seek them out. That way, you’ll never be out of the loop. As long as you have the correct software and the ear of the people, you should always be one step ahead.

Ways to Develop a Payroll Specialist Resume

Ways to Develop a Payroll Specialist ResumeA payroll specialist resume must demonstrate how much experience you have in this field. There are many tests that may be required to determine whether or not a candidate is qualified to fill the position. These tests will include the following;Examining the candidate's salary level. How much money does the employee make and if you are applying for a managerial position, how much does your boss make? This information will help the employer determine whether or not you will be able to pay your rent and other bills. It is also important to know the salary level of the company you are applying for the position in.Examining the candidate's work experience. Look over the applicant's employment history and any accomplishments that they may have listed. Any college courses that you have attended and any certifications you may have obtained are all information that should be taken into consideration. Anything that you can think of that is relevant w ill add to your application.Examining the candidate's abilities to handle paperwork. This may include paying taxes, depositing checks, or shredding paper documents. The best way to show how you handle paperwork is to show a background in taking care of this kind of work. If you do not have any experience in this area, make sure that you work on improving your paper handling skills.Examining your past job duties. Look over your previous employment and any tasks that you were involved in that may provide you with the ability to handle this kind of work. It is important to know if you ever found yourself in a situation where someone else needed help.Examining your personality. A payroll specialist resume can include information regarding any jobs you may have held in the past. This information may include things like; employee of the month, how many sales you made, or anything that may have helped the employer understand your personality.Examining your past employers. This includes tim es when you worked for smaller companies or the larger corporations. When you have been employed in this type of industry, it is important to show that you have the skills and abilities to help a large corporation to stay organized and to properly handle employees.Making sure that you mention the job responsibilities you had before you were hired. The payroll manager or someone else in the organization may ask you to list the duties that you had before you were hired. This is an important part of your job history because it will show what your experience is.