10 Steps to Create Demand for Your Work for Your Careers Sake

10 Steps to Create Demand for Yur Work for Your Careers Sake Remember Bo Jackson? He was one of few professional athletes to play and excel at two different sports baseball and football.What does Jackson have to do with your career? Its simple, really His example teaches us what it means to be in demand. Jackson so proved and maintained his excellence that teams in both the MLB and the NFL wanted him on their rosters.Staying in demand is the key to a successful career. If you want to stay in demand, you need to take a page from Jackson. Your strongest skills must be evident in all that you do. You must exploit their value, showcase them to the world, and create demand for yourself.Here aresome steps to take in order to create and sustain demand for the value you produce as a professional1.Stay Focused on the Value of Your WorkMost of us need to be reminded occasionally of what our work means and how it impacts others.Find out how your work improve s other peoples lives, and keep this in your sights at all times.2. Keep Proof of Your Best Work Close ByYou will have to show others your best work not to brag, but to illustrate your value. Share proof of your best, most recent work on your social channels. Use the channels where your work is mostly likely to reach its intended audience.3. Know Who AppreciatesYour Work and WhyYou may have to do a little schmoozing in order to better understand whom your work reaches and whom it serves, but thats okay. Over-delivering is mora thanjust an extra scoop of ice cream its a way to build intimate pathways between your work and the people it affects, not to mention the additional brand loyalty it yields.4. Reward Constructive FeedbackConstructive feedback can be tough to swallow, but its necessary. Most importantly, pay attention to the source of the criticism. Can you accept constructive feedback from someone who may not care about the outcome? If you can, and you can respond positively to that feedback, you can stay ahead of your competition. Thank people for their critiques. Doing so will build goodwill and show others you are serious about what you do.5. Engage in Meaningful ConversationsGood networking isnt about getting things from people.Good networking is an exchange of value. When you make connections, look for ways to build trust not just for now, but for the long term. Also give as much as youre getting if not more.6. Anticipate Your Professional Peaks and ValleysAll careers have periods of thriving and periods of decline. Layoffs and terminations happen toeven the best of us people. Stay connected to the meaning of your work. Respond quickly and appropriately to both good and badeanstalt news.7. Become Your Own Master PublicistYour future employers and business partners want to know you. The more people rave about you, theeasier it is to buildtrust. When you have people bragging about the value you deliver, new opportunities will come to you.Why not l end your voice to a podcast, magazine, or television interview? Get your message out there, and get other people spreading it for you.8. Share Your StoriesYour message, voice, and delivery matter to the people in your network. Peoplewant to know how you got to where you are. Part of why people invest emotionally or financially in anything is because they understand the journey and want to be part of it. Get your message out there through relevant, engaging stories. People will listen.9.Connect With ExpertsWhom you meet matters. It is essential toforge relationships with hiring managers and executives. They may not hire you, but they can certainly help you on your journey in some way or another. Employers who offer insights into their hiring practices on LinkedIn and other platforms are valuable. If youre bold and tactical, you can engage them.10. Give Without Expecting to GetWord spreads when you give more than you take. People care more about your generosity than your skills. If yo u prove you arepersonally drivento create value for others, people will be impressed and theyll want you on their side.People wont demand you if they dont know or trust you. You must create demand. It wont show up at your door. Put your work out there. Connect with employers, referrers, and other people in your industry. Make yourself available to others the people who want you in their network, the employers who could use your skills, and the people who need your help.Mark Anthony Dyson is a career consultant, the host and producer of The Voice of Job Seekers podcast, and the founder of the blog by the same name.

The languages of appreciation A tool for growing soft skills

The languages of appreciation A tool for growing soft skillsThe languages of appreciation A tool for growing soft skillsHistorically, high-level business and organizational leaders have been taught to focus on the hard metrics of business financial statements, market share, increasing productivity and reducing expenses to maximize profits and shareholder value. These all are important aspects to monitor, to ensure the business is profitable and sustainable.Similarly, engineers, computer programmers and others who work in high-tech industries most often associated with Silicon Valley are trained, focused on, and rewarded for producing results. And unterstellung high-tech companies are known to offer competitive financial rewards and recognition programs to motivate and encourage employees to keep delivering high-quality work.Follow Ladders on FlipboardFollow Ladders magazines on Flipboard covering Happiness, Productivity, Job Satisfaction, Neuroscience, and moreThe hard skills of tec hnical abilities, accounting, and financial analysis are primarily acquired through education, on-the-job training, and certificate programs. These skills are definable, quantifiable and easy to evaluate.To some extent, these approaches focusing on production and financial results have been effective in the short-term.But as many corporations and dot-com businesses have been experiencing in the past few years if attention and training arent focused on the soft skills in the workplace, major problems follow. Consider the recent chinks in the armor exposed in the work cultures at Google, Uber, and major media companies, to cite a few.These soft skills are the interpersonal or people skills needed to help an organizationofpeoplework together to achieve the organizations goals. Communication skills, conflict resolution, influence and leadership, working collaboratively, and being able to show your employees you value them are all examples of core soft skills. They are harder to defin e and measure (hence, the label soft skills), but they are no less important because they are key factors in creating healthy workplace cultures and effective collaborative relationships. Until recently, they have rarely been taught in classroom settings or on the job through coaching.Traditional reward and recognition programs have typically focused on quality and volume of work delivered, but what has been missing is appreciating employees asindividuals,both for the quality of the work they deliverandfor the values and attitudes they demonstrate while carrying out their work.The deficiency in soft skills among managers may be attributed largely to work cultures which emphasize competitiveness, innovation, and above allresults. An overemphasis purely focused on results obtained (primarily financial results) leads executives, managers, and supervisors down the path which culminates in treating employees solely as resources to be used to reach the leaders goals. Employees become prod uction units and cease to be valued as people.Languages of Appreciation as a Tool to Build Soft SkillsThe 5 languages of appreciation have been shown to be aneffective,structured approach to develop and improve soft skillsthat appeal to leaders across a wide range of industries and work settings. The languages of appreciation are a tool that can be used by any employee, regardless of seniority level and independent of leadership or management roles.The 5 Languages of Appreciation in the Workplacehighlights the need to value employees as whole individuals. OurAppreciation at Worktraining process uses the 5 Languages of Appreciation principles to create a culture of appreciation in the workplace that can yield increased levels of employee engagement, job satisfaction, and numerous other positive effects for the employees, the company, and customers.CombiningThe 5 Languages of Appreciation in the Workplaceand theMotivating by Appreciation Inventory(MBA Inventory) creates a useful and s traightforward framework that can be used by anyone regardless of their experience level with soft skills. The 5 languages of appreciation address the how-to elements of creating a culture of appreciation and covers topics related to authenticity and frequency, and provides examples for each of the five appreciation languages. The results of each employeesMBA Inventorywill show how each individual desires to be shown appreciation, guiding you in how to effectively communicate appreciation to them.ConclusionBusiness and financial managers, and high-tech occupations are often motivated by interesting and challenging problems to solve, and goals to achieve. Focusing solely on achieving goals, however, leads to a tendency to treat employees primarily as resources to get tasks done. This often leads to a culture where employees feel used and taken advantage of.When the 5 Languages of Appreciation are used as a tool to communicate how leaders value their employees on a regular basis, in e veryday work situations, and across all responsibility levels, empathy for others develops and a foundation of important soft skills begin to be built.People, both colleagues, direct reports and managers, want to be valued for the contributions they make. Unfortunately, most team members actuallydontfeel appreciated. But very little is required to make a difference and communicate appreciation in the various ways individuals desire. Learning what form of appreciation your colleagues prefer isnt hard. And once you know what they like, a little appreciation goes a long way to encourage those around you.This article first appeared in the Appreciation at Work.You might also enjoyNew neuroscience reveals 4 rituals that will make you happyStrangers know your social class in the first seven words you say, study finds10 lessons from Benjamin Franklins daily schedule that will double your productivityThe worst mistakes you can make in an interview, according to 12 CEOs10 habits of mentally s trong people