Establish successful networks
- Monday, 16 January 2017
Put yourself in the limelight!
- Monday, 05 December 2016
Don’t suppose that your boss will already recognize from your work what a "diamond" you are. In particular, if you have frequently changed your environment and move outside the classical career ladder, you must boost your qualities in another way. Your motto should be: “Do good and talk about it!” Your strategy here is to become valuable in terms of being a source of expertise and information. That’s how you get closer to your goal of boosting your own market value.
Use the power of the first impression!
- Monday, 07 November 2016
When you meet someone, it takes that person ten to 180 seconds to decide what he/she thinks of you using a series of three phases:
- The person standing across from you quickly develops a gut feeling about you, for example, positive or negative, friend or foe, all based on your appearance, posture and behavior.
- The person is now already biased and everything you do afterwards that stands out will either be judged as positive or negative.
- They form an image of your entire personality by attributing certain characteristics to you which you may have not necessarily shown, but which seem to be plausible to them based on the first impression. This includes features such as intelligence, competence, social status, superiority, etc.
The first impression usually persists. When you’ve been mentally “labelled” as something, it’s not a quick task for you to loose this image. That’s why it’s important to make a good impression in the first three minutes of meeting a contact. The better you succeed at fulfilling the positive expectations of your opponent, the better you’ll be at asserting yourself.
SOS – the boss is yelling!
- Tuesday, 11 October 2016
The boss is full of anger, and the yelling can be heard across the hall, even with the doors closed. In today's business environment, this type of situation unfortunately occurs more often than one would like. Hushed rumors run rampant throughout the company. Many know about “this conduct", but often nothing is done about it from the outside. The employee affected or the entire team are left all on their own. But how does one best respond to this type of situation? In order to find an answer to this question, you have to understand why people get angry.
Make the right connection with your boss
- Tuesday, 20 September 2016
Are you on the same wavelength as your supervisors and other key decision-makers in your company? If you want to find out, with a little practice you can use a mirroring technique from psychology as a quick, simple tool.
Think faster on your feet!
- Tuesday, 09 August 2016
Quick-witted individuals have a huge advantage. The right remark rolling off your tongue won’t only let you protect your interests, but it will also allow you to better assert yourself as well as to deflect unfair attacks, defuse conflicts and avoid embarrassing situations. And when the comeback’s that good, then the laughs are also bound to be on your side.
Everyone’s been there, that situation where you’re caught off guard by some kind of cheeky comment and want to say something back. Finding the right reply to clearly show the other person that you won’t put up with everything isn’t always easy – at least when it needs to be quick.
How to handle criticism constructively
- Monday, 04 July 2016
No one likes to be criticized. However, criticism shouldn’t throw you off track. Don’t look at criticism as a devaluation of your own personality. Instead, see criticism as a chance to learn something about yourself and improve your professional or communicative skills.
How to be more assertive with your concerns
- Tuesday, 31 May 2016
If you want to achieve something in your career, it’s not enough to just have good ideas. Your ideas have to be heard and recognized. For this to happen, it’s important that you can formulate your concerns in a precise way and present them to your supervisor or even a whole committee with confidence.
Increase your self-esteem
- Tuesday, 26 April 2016
Your self-esteem is the emotional perception you have of yourself. It’s like looking into a mirror in which you see your own personality.
Good self-esteem makes it easier for us to approach other people, encourages positive feedback from our surroundings, and strengthens our sense of belonging. No matter what profession you’re in, your self-esteem determines the level of happiness and success you’ll experience in your everyday work. To put it another way: only when we trust in who we are and what we can do can we accept challenges in our lives and grow through them.
Five types of boss and how to handle them
- Tuesday, 08 March 2016
From my own experience, I know that supervisors and their different leadership styles can present a constant challenge to employees. If you recognize your supervisor’s behavior and understand the motivations behind it, you can deal with it better, act accordingly, and develop your own perspectives on issues that matter.
Holding successful salary negotiations
- Tuesday, 09 February 2016
Are you one of the many workers who believe your boss should have offered you a raise long ago? After all, he should notice how committed you are to your job. Certainly, your supervisor has to see how much more you achieve than was originally agreed in your employment contract...
Bullying: What can I do as a supervisor?
- Tuesday, 29 September 2015
According to Swedish psychologist Heinz Leymann, the term bullying describes the repeated hostile actions of one or more persons against another person over a longer period.
Conflicts of this kind often take place in secret. Employees will not approach their superiors for fear of being viewed as "not able to handle conflict" or "not able to handle stress." That's why it's all the more important for managers to develop their own early warning system and raise their voices when
Skillful Small Talk (II)
- Tuesday, 01 September 2015
So, you've successfully started the conversation. What do you do when the conversation threatens to stall or simply dry up. The solution: ask a question. Questions are the lifeblood of any small talk! Intelligent questions make the conversation interesting. If you ask clever questions, you'll learn more about the others. But don't put them under duress: this is not an interrogation!
Good questions are always open-ended, i.e. they cannot be answered with a simple "Yes" or "No". These include all questions that start with what, how, when, where, why, or who. Here are a couple of examples:
Skillful Small Talk (I)
- Tuesday, 04 August 2015
Have you ever run into the head of the company walking down the hall and didn't know what to say? We often lose opportunities, because we can't come up with the right words to start a conversation. This is where the skill of small talk comes to play: chatting without any specific business purpose in mind is key to making contacts with others, building trust, laying the groundwork for future deals, and winning new friends.
How does it work? People start talking, notice things that they have in common, and then go on to discover subjects that really interest them. Small talk opens the door to what's important!
Wie Sage ich «Nein»?
- Saturday, 02 May 2015
IM ALLTAG GIBT ES IMMER WIEDER MENSCHEN, DIE UNS EIN «JA» ABRINGEN, OBWOHL WIR EIGENTLICH «NEIN» SAGEN WOLLTEN.
Der Verkäufer, der uns ein teures paar Schuhe «aufschwatzt»; die Schwiegereltern, die sich zum Mittagessen am Wochenende einladen; der Kollege, der Ihnen immer wieder Arbeit abschiebt oder der Chef, der einen bittet, die Präsentation noch bis am Abend fertigzustellen, obwohl man bereits verabredet ist. Im privaten und beruflichen Alltag gibt es vielen Situationen, in denen ein «Nein» angebrachter wäre.