Archivi degli autori: crisbiecoach

Make the Difference in Job Interviews

Most of recruiters use behavioural questions during job interview in order to get an idea if you have the skills and competences that match with the needed profile.

The rationale behind is that if they know how you performed in the past it will help them to get an idea of how you might do in the future.

Be ready to tell stories that illustrates your past performance. There are some common acronyms used in conveying a specific sequence of job-related that will help you to remember the scripts. The trick of using acronyms is that the first letters will help you to recall your story-telling during an interview. Acronyms are mind-maps to keep you focused and on track.

Here are the most common:

CAB: Challenge – Action – Behaviour
PAR: Problem – Action – Result
STAR: Situation/Task – Action – Result
SPARE: Situation/Problem – Action – Result – Enthusiasm
SBO: Situation – Behavior – Outcome

These acronyms remind you to include the important parts of your story — in a chronological sequence. Consider them a template when scripting your stories. Every story has a beginning, middle and end. Naturally, all parts are essential for a complete story.

  • The Beginning — Why you did it: The reason, problem, task or situation.
  • The Middle — How you did it: The action part of your story.
  • The End — What was the outcome or result: The end of the story.

Whenever you are asked for an illustration of your past work, such as, “Tell me about a time when…” or “Can you give me an example…,” think of it as your cue to tell a story, using an acronym.

The Story

If you are asked during the interview, “Tell me about a time when you had to handle an angry customer?”

To be effective, you need to cite a specific example of a past work success. Use an acronym to recall the details of your experience and move the story from beginning to end. Let’s use the acronym PAR:

Problem/Situation: “A customer called and was upset about his bill and the extra charges on his account. He was yelling and calling me names.”

Action: “The first thing I did was let him talk and get it all out. When he began to calm down, I let him know that I understood his problem. I asked for additional information to make sure I had all the facts. I told him I would call him back within three hours. I then researched his account and the reasons for the extra charges. I did find some errors and presented them to my boss with a recommendation for rectifying the problem. My boss agreed with my findings. I called the customer back and let him know that the problem had been resolved.”

Result: “The customer was impressed with my efficient handling of the situation. He apologized for yelling and for taking his frustration out on me. He even offered to send my boss an email regarding my excellent customer service and follow-through.”

Notice that all the key parts of the story are there. The point of this account is to demonstrate your successful experience in dealing with irate customers.

Using acronyms to prepare your success stories will make a big difference in your interview performance. An acronym helps you remember the details of the story without having to memorize a scripted version. Use your mental outline and follow the pattern.

Communicating with Influence

The modern workplace is changing, and holding a senior position within an organisation no longer automatically means that you can influence your team members. You may often have to convince both bosses and colleagues of the merits of your strategy or idea.

This means that you need a range of influencing tactics, to ensure that you are comfortable influencing different people at different times and in different situations.

You can use more than one way to convince your colleagues of your plan’s strengths. You can use both logic and emotion; demonstrate both the positive aspects of the plan and the negative aspects of the alternatives.

There are four strategies you can consider:

  1. Investigator
  2. Calculator
  3. Motivator
  4. Collaborator

1. Investigators draw on facts and figures to support a logical and methodical approach. To become adept at this style of influencing, it is important to feel comfortable handling data, finding information that supports your strategy, and then using it to form a convincing argument.

Information gathering is the first step. Effective influencers of this type collect two main types of information: background data, which informs their view of the world, and task-related data, that is for a specific purpose. Be sure to chunk your information before delivering, to avoid audience stops listening. And be sure also to avoid information overload!

2. Calculators  tend to use logic to influence and will likely be good debaters.

This style depends on giving time and effort to in-depth analysis and the creation of a well-structured argument. Skills associated with this approach include: the ability to weigh options, the capacity to provide feedback, and an understanding of when to offer concessions.

Stick to the facts so that you keep your credibility, but remember to contrast your proposal’s benefits with the risks of inaction in a way that your listeners can relate to.

3. Motivators use emotions and the “big picture” to communicate compelling visions of the future. While some people seem to be natural motivators, there are some simple lessons that can teach any of us to influence through motivation.

You can add structure to your enthusiasm, and maximise the impact of any presentation you have to give. You may would like to use the Monroe’s Motivated Sequence. In five steps you will gain your audience’s attention, and leave team members with specific actions that they can take afterwards.

You might think that you lack the natural charisma to be a Motivator, but the good news is that this trait can be developed. You can learn to be more engaging, likeable and inspiring. Concentrate on your body language, help others to feel good, and show empathy, assertiveness and confidence.

4. Collaborators use motivation too, but they persuade people by involving them in the decision.

Collaborators are great team builders. They engage people’s hearts and minds. This helps people to own the process of change for themselves. In these circumstances, your role is to be a facilitator rather than trying to convince team members logically.

To be a collaborator, you likely need: the ability to share power, the capacity to listen actively, and the willingness to communicate openly.

And you, which one of these influencing strategies are you most and least comfortable with?

 

New Language Learning: The Positive Effects on Your Brain

Learning a new language is like learning to drive: it does not matter in which order you learn to steer, use the brake, or change gear. It’s what you do as a whole that is important, not which component you learn first.

The latest breakthroughs in the neurosciences, combined with innovative technology for measuring brain activity, are shedding new light on the neural basis of foreign language learning. The functions of the brain during language acquisition are associated with one of the brain hemispheres. The assignment of these functions to a certain half is called lateralisation and is completed before puberty. This explains why this is often indicated as the age limit for acquiring a language with native-like skills.

However, nowadays we know that both hemispheres are involved in language acquisition and production, with different tasks and purposes:

  • The right half ensures the global perception of the context, and comprehension of the connotation of the language, i.e. metaphors, irony, humour, etc.
  • The left half has an analytical perception (cause-effect), which allows the person to understand the logical part of the message.

In other words, both sides of our brain are complementary when learning a language, as the right hemisphere will help us to understand the lexical part of the message as well as its emotional connotation, while the left half will decode its grammar, and phonetic and logical components.

The efficiency of the neuronal networks which are responsible for these functions rely on several factors. First, for example, the age you start learning a new language matters, and the frequency of exposition and use of the language itself. In addition, the level of emotional involvement matters, and the personal learning style of the learner. Thus, the more involved and motivated an adult is, the easier it is to get through the same stages they went through when learning to speak their mother tongue.

Findings on how our brain works when learning a new language have had a major impact on language learning over the years. Over recent decades, the focus of second language learning has shifted from a more traditional approach targeting grammar, learning by repetition and memorisation, to a more dynamic one where the learner can adjust their learning experience and find what is best for their learning style. Therefore, the traditional teacher-centred model has ceded ground to the learner-centred one.

Beside these new studies in neurosciences, the big 21st century sociological trends have also contributed to changing the way we learn a language.

Mastering excellent communication skills has become a must. Nowadays, public speaking and presentation skills are considered important for both studying and working, and communication has quickly become a symbol of positive leadership. Social media also did a lot to spread this way of communicating, part of a new knowledge sharing.

Another big trend is the digital revolution, which is having important consequences on our learning style. E-learning is evolving at a fast pace and learning a new language with digital support is getting easier and easier. Visual, audio and virtual exercises help learners to immerse themselves in the language and culture they want to study with a methodology that simulates the instinctive language acquisition in children. The advantage is that you do it at your own pace, whenever and wherever it suits you best.

Finally, the multicultural societies in which we live have also influenced our learning style and motivation. Today we no longer study a foreign language to get a better job, as it was probably the case a few decades ago. Now, institutions promote multilingualism from primary school to open pupils’ minds, encourage them to discover new cultures and use these to enrich their own personality.

Unplug your mind, find yourself

When e-mails, text messages, conference calls, Webex, Whatspp, FB, Instagram, Tweeter, Google and anything else from your partner to your boss invade our lives, it becomes necessary for our survival to stop for a while and be silent.

Our always connected minds take us away from the best of ourselves and our creative potential.

Referring constantly to what one or the other has said, we forget to connect to our essential being, which is unique and precious.

We have become individuals driven by technological change that moved away from ourselves, from our awareness of being human, from the first component of Emotional Intelligence (EI). EI is recognized today as a condition of success in a Volatile, Uncertain, Complex and Ambiguous (VUCA) world, as it is the one we live today.

Refocusing, looking inside, listening to silence and our inner voice. In the depths of ourselves we find an enormous amount of resources and our most authentic creativity: it is our treasure, a unique, rich and colorful, magical place where everything is open and possible.

In this space, we can find synchronicity, messages and insights that will enable us to make the right decisions for our lives.

In this space real relationships can arise, authentic relationships between sincere people who are now masked by the ego that continues to rule us.

What to do then?

Give yourself moments of silence! Be for a while without your mobile phone. Go out for a walk without it, walk with no direction in the nature and feel, look, listen, use all your senses to the maximum.

Be present in this unique moment and let yourself be pervaded by the harmony that surrounds you.

Practice your favorite hobby, and if you do not have it, think about finding one. Quietly cooking at home, knitting, painting, drawing, gardening and all the other activities that you may be passionate about.

Stop for a moment and stop moving from one activity to another, from one piece of information to another. Your brain can not take it anymore, it also needs a rest. Give yourself time to deepen the reasons of your choices and discover the reason of your being, your purpose.

So many people today cannot make a decision, if it has not been recommended by someone, a friend, a colleague, or a family member.

People feel lost. Most probably they are really lost: they have disconnected from themselves to live in connection with the social networks.

It is not my intention to condemn social networks and sources of information, I also use them. The problem is their overuse: a lot of people nowadays lives constantly with an external reference and far away from their real life.

I can accompany you on a journey where you will learn to clear some space for your inner needs. I will show you techniques to manage your stress that will help you to go back to your daily occupations in a more balanced way. And live your life fully. You deserve it!

Creativity: the skill of the future

Creativity is among the top three skills of the future.  I try to clarify this concept and give you more resources to explore it further.

We often associate creativity with artistic or innovational abilities, that only certain special people have. Those people are supposed to live a life of free expression and to produce ingenious works of arts or invent something useful for the human kind.

However, according to creativity expert, Sir Ken Robinson, this view of creativity is erroneous. Robinson, whose talk on this subject remains the most viewed video on Ted.com, states that:

  • creativity is essential for all spheres of work and life, not just the arts,
  • we are all born creative, but grow out of it,
  • creativity does not require freedom from boundaries and usually takes place within a given framework,
  • creativity is a process, rather than an event, and consequently,
  • it can be learned by all.

Creativity is closely linked to, but different from imagination and innovation. This definition of the concept identifies two phases of the creative process:

  1. generating ideas,
  2. making judgements (evaluating the value of those ideas).

This helps explain why so many different factors may be conducive to creativity, such as intellectual abilities, knowledge, styles of thinking, motivation, certain personality traits and environment.

Even though there is limited scientifically sound conclusions on how to become more creative, a number of techniques may help:

There are a lot of resources available on the Internet that will help you boosting your capacity to create original and useful work:

Have fun!

New Year’s Resolutions

New year’s resolutions are very common at the beginning of each year.

The most difficult thing is to achieve them. We get bored, we start thinking we could never accomplish them, we have too many things to do and why bothering to take those for serious? But you don’t need to set unrealistic resolutions, you can set something like the following, that are not that difficult too achieve, if you really want to.

Here they are:

  1. Spend more time with friends, or your beloved ones doing anything you really like. It’s the best way to feel connected, even if you are an introvert type. You can create a routine out of it, like joining a club that gathers each first Monday of the month, for instance
  2. Everyday, find a way to thank someone. This is great happiness booster. You can start with being thankful for all what you have, the place you live, the job you have, the gym club you go, all that is part of the abundance that surrounds you. Day after day you’ll become an expert and you will be thankful for a blossoming flower, the rising sun, a baby smiling at you
  3. Get more sleep and exercise. If you sleep less than 7-8 hours each night, you can start by increasing your sleeping time 10 minutes a night for a week, then another 10 the next week, and so on until you reach your optimal sleeping time.
  4. After the winter holidays, we all feel a bit overweight. Starting with a physical activity will help you not only in loosing some weight but also in feeling in a better mood. Physical activity in the long run gives you more endorphins, the hormones that inhibit the transmission of pain signals and may also produce a feeling of euphoria.

Good luck and may you achieve your goals in 2019!

Personal Agility

One interpretation of personal agility is that it is a self-management concept consisting of three main attributes: adaptability, proactivity and resilience.  The profile of an agile person, then, is someone who is:

1. Adaptive – able to adjust to different organisational conditions (new equipment, new ways of working, projects, teams);

2. Proactive – able to respond promptly and to look for opportunities in the changed environment, and

3. Resilient – able to cope under changing or unknown conditions or when facing difficulty or failure.

 How does one develop personal agility? Adopting these behaviours can help:

1. Expect change to happen

2. Embrace ambiguity

3. Learn to reframe your thoughts 

4. Accept failure and learn from mistakes

5. Be curious

6. Develop a can-do attitude

7. Distinguish between two main groups of stressors: those that are out of your control and those that you can confront

Being agile does not mean saying ‘yes’ to everything. On the contrary. And while this may be a self-management concept, whether one is agile or not will be influenced by the organisational context. 

Nevertheless, there is plenty we can do to become more agile. We have gathered some resources for you below. In addition, find inspiration in those, who more easily adopt an agile mindset, like children.

Choosing the right means of communication

It happens to all of us. We draft an important message and broadcast it to the world to only find out that the world “did not get it”.

The email was misunderstood; the news announcement jumped to second page too fast; the videoconference connection got interrupted; the meeting was too long, people got distracted and missed the critical info right at the end. Effective communication is demanding. It is influenced by organisational factors such as the workplace culture and norms, the level of communication skills of senders and recipients, the engagement of employees, to name a few.

But there are also elements within our control that can help us communicate more effectively. Choosing the right means or channel for communication is one. Here we share with you some tips and resources on this topic. Deciding on ‘how’ you are going to communicate entails first reflecting on your communication objectives, audience and content.

Think about your communication objective

Why are you communicating? Are you providing general information, sharing knowledge or asking for a decision? Is your objective ambitious and you are attempting to change behaviours?

Know your target audience

Knowing your stakeholders includes understanding their communication needs and preferences. How do they like to stay informed? Will they have questions? How would they prefer to give feedback?

Consider your content

Sensitive or conflictual information is best given in person (even if there is a written follow-up). On the other hand, if your content is more informal, for example, if you are sharing useful resources, you can use social media, which will allow you to label and store the content properly.

Know the strengths and weaknesses of each communication channel

We easily fall into habits and start to rely too much on a single communication channel (I think email is abused nowadays). It is important to consider the most efficient and effective channel for each message. Getting acquainted and comfortable with using different channels is a priority.

 

 

September, going back to the routine

Summer is not over yet, but we are back to work. It’s hard, I know. We miss the beautiful days spent on vacation, wherever it was. I miss the beautiful sea of Sardinia, the fantastic boat trips we took and the genuine food we ate there.

Here are three tips I would like to give you to boost your morale:

  1. follow your rhythm – it may seem simple but it’s not always like that. Try to follow what your body tells your. You need to stretch, take five minutes and do it. You feel like walking, go out of the office for five minutes and walk. You would like to eat chocolate, eat it! And if you are an early bird, don’t start your morning by reading your emails, leave it for later, when you will be a bit tired.
  2. manage your time – learn how to prioritise your activities not only day by day but week by week. Try to establish a couple of objectives you would like to achieve by the end of your week, prepare a step-by-step plan and follow it up.
  3. learn to say NO – It seems that nobody cares about the fact that you just came back from holidays. Then, make them understand by saying no. If your boss asks you something that it goes beyond your competence, let her know and ask for help. If your partner asks you something that you disagree on, tell her and try to negotiate. If one of your friends asks you to do some jogging with her and you don’t want it, just let her know that you don’t feel like to.

The effective eMail Communicator

The effective eMail Communicator has those four characteristics:

  1. knows the audience
  2. is literate
  3. respects integrity
  4. manages dependency

Categories of email:

  1. Regular email: email that deals with everyday topics and questions
  2. Instructional email: email that is specific about telling the stakeholder what they must do or what is expected of them
  3. Crisis email: email that is looking to solve a problem or alert the stakeholder to a potential problem
  4. Legal email: email that explains a legal position or the meaning of a legal cause
  5. Dissatisfied email: stakeholder who are not satisfied by the quality of the response or the service provided.

Governing Factors:

  1. Subject line, that is relevant, determines if the receiver is going to open your message and how quickly (ideal length between 35 and 50 characters). Use a subject line formula (e.g. Status-Topic-Action-Date) and change subject line when the subject has changed.
  2. Layout: break-up the email with sub-headings as they support scanning and suggest that there is a structure to the email. Keep the font consistent, unless you want to create a visual unsettling. Use bullet points preferably with numbers. Put important words or phrases in bold so they stand out clearly. Avoid: Italics, they are difficult to read; underlining, as it is associated with hyper texting;
  3. Tone and style. Tone is about the mood, it reflects emotion and feeling, the receiver evaluates the value of what you write. Style is the way you write, it is reflected in the linguistic way you construct sentences and use words.

Tone

Style
Formal and respectful Avoids informal words and expressions in favour of more formal ones
Polite and courteous Acknowledges how the receiver feels and, when appropriate, will use language that reassures
Relaxed and conversational Uses informal words and avoids unnecessary words or phrasing
In control (of the situation) Uses short sentences and writes with purpose
Informative and helpful Gives clear and concise information that is easy to follow and understand

 

  1. Readability: it means the quality of written language that makes it easy to read and understand. Influencing factors are:
    1. The length of a sentence
    2. The number of syllables in a word
    3. Strange words
    4. Complex phrasing.

There are many formulas that test readability: visit www.readabilityformulas.com

5. Plain language:

  • Write short sentences, ideally 15-20 words. Otherwise you can:
    • Use more full stops
    • Restart with connectors (however, so, but,…)
    • Say less by avoiding repetition
  • Use bullet points. Use a numbered list when you write about a certain number of issues to be discussed. Put a full stop on the final bullet point, as you are ending the sentence. They work best in odd numbers (3,5,7)
  • Favour the active voice. It’s clearer and more direct. It puts the action at the beginning of the sentence
  • Use simple words. Don’t be afraid of using simple words, readers are in a hurry for clarity and concision.
Sounding Words Plain Words
As a consequence of because
Despite the fact that Although, despite
Due to the fact that, in view of the fact that As, because
Erroneous wrong
If this is the case If so
Necessitate Need, have to require
The law provides that The law says
With reference to About, concerning
thereafter Then, afterwards
Manner way

Remember: it’s about speed – the most amount of information using the least number of words.

  1. Tribal words: they are words that belong to a group of people or a sector or a whole organisation. If used correctly, they create a sense of belonging, if not they are exclusive because they become a jargon.

 

Tips:

  1. To better structure your information, you can use the questions as sub-headings to enhance scanning (the way most people read nowadays). Make a list of 5 to 7 questions about the topic, and then provide short, concise answers to them.
  2. The inverted pyramid
    • Important information at the top
    • Then answer to: WHO, WHAT, WHEN, WHERE, WHY (how)
    • Adhere to 80:20 rule.

Traditional is: the problem, statement or observation followed by a discussion of options, theories or methods. It ends with a result and a conclusion.

Email approach: start with the information that is more important to the reader (confirmation of request or objective). Then follow it with supporting information and end with background details.

  1. Chunking
    • It is used for online publishing.
    • Each sentence is a paragraph.
    • There is an increase of scrolling but readers have no problem with it.
    • It’s good for a lot of news and factual information.
    • Chunking makes the text less tiring on the eye when reading.