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The 15 worst mistakes interns have made, according to my coworkers

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by Rachel Gillett

June 14, 2016

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Summer internships aren’t a vacation; they’re a professional opportunity that should be treated as such. REUTERS/Chris Helgren

Those who work in media cross paths with a lot of interns.

Business Insider, for example, has an extensive internship program, which not only gives burgeoning reporters job experience and guidance but also provides editors and reporters with the experience of managing people.

To help readers glean lessons on what not to do as they begin their own internships this summer, I asked my colleagues who have managed or worked with (or as) interns about the worst mistakes they have seen interns make (or made themselves) at Business Insider and beyond. Read more…

How to be a Good (Library) Boss

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by Bahark Yousefi picture-579

Thursday, May 19, 2016

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I am in the business of encouraging librarians to apply for library management jobs. When I come across smart, awesome, politically progressive librarians (which happens with delightful frequency), I try to convince them to consider management. This is not because I think management is the only path forward for these wonderful humans, but because I want more smart, awesome, and politically progressive folks at those tables. I want them there because libraries need to be changing in big, fundamental ways, and right now, as things stand, that’s where the power to push for those changes resides. Often, the librarian (aka my target) will ask me what I think it takes to be a good library manager and my answer, without fail, is “be a decent human being.” Now, as true as that may be, I appreciate that it is not very specific. What follows is an attempt to expand the list, in no particular order:

  1. Be a decent human being (still #1).
  2. Be the kind of boss that tells employees about their rights and then helps them claim and exercise those rights.
  3. Be absolutely committed to transparency. Do not assume that you know what others need/don’t need to know (of course, be mindful of all the legal and ethical stuff).
  4. Have a vision. Care very, very passionately about something and make sure everyone knows what that is.
  5. Make absolutely sure that people who work for you have the resources to do their work. If resources are scarce, then change their work. Do less with less and more with more. Read more…

5 Hard Lessons I’ve Learned As A Career Coach

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J.T. O’Donnell
June 14, 2016

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I’ve been a professional career coach since 2002. Over the last 10+ years, I have learned a lot about the industry and what it takes to be an effective career coach. [Click here to learn more about becoming a career coach.]

Back when I became a coach, the concept wasn’t as widely accepted as it is today. In fact, my clients were afraid to admit they were working with a career coach because they felt like it indicated there was something wrong with them. Today, we now understand career coaching isn’t a sign of weakness, but a path to greatness. It’s why all the top pro athletes and business executives use them. If you want to optimize your performance and achieve new levels of success and satisfaction in your career, it’s more than likely you’ll work with a coach at some point. Why? If you could do it on your own, you would have by now.

I Learned These Lessons The Hard Way

Having worked with literally thousands of people on their careers, I have learned some valuable professional lessons. In the beginning of my coaching career, I thought I could help everyone. I was wrong. You can only help people who are ready to be helped. I wasted hundreds of hours on people who just weren’t ready to succeed. I learned the hard way the following five things:

People only turn to career coaching when they are in pain.

School teaches us everything except how to manage our careers. As a result, nobody enters the professional world with the right set of skills and abilities to successfully manage their careers. Unfortunately, it isn’t until a person makes a major mistake or has a career setback that they seek coaching. Only then do they have the Ah-ha Moment that they need to close the gap in their knowledge and abilities so they can get back on track. Read more…

The 1 Thing You Need to Achieve Work-Life Balance by Lolly Daskal

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There is a secret to work-life balance, but you’re not going to like it.
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CREDIT: Getty Images

 

There is always lots of talk about work-life balance and how to achieve it, but the real truth falls outside most of those discussions.

Jack Welch, renowned former CEO of General Electric, famously stated, “There is no such thing as work-life balance. There are work-life choices, and you make them, and they have consequences.”

At the time his critics slammed him and accused him of being detached, but there was deep insight in what he was saying.

As a leadership coach, I often hear from clients asking me about work-life balance and how to make it happen. But trying to create balance simply isn’t working.

Technology means that we’re all available 24/7. And, because everyone demands instant gratification and instant connectivity, there are no boundaries, no breaks, no time for the balance we crave.

But there’s an alternative to the nonstop work cycle. And isn’t found in balance but in integration.

Balance is achieved when things become steady, and we know that life and business are anything but steady–they are in a constant state of motion.

Everything we do, if we want to do it well, is done with an integration of parts that create synergy. So instead of work-life balance, let’s start working toward work-life integration.

Work-life integration starts with analyzing the contradictions. Here are some examples to help you get started in making work-life integration work for you.

1. We have to work, but we have also have to learn to take time off.

Read more…

How to Confront Conflict in the Workplace by Dennis McCafferty

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posted 11-16-2015

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How to confront conflict in the workplace: CIOs and other managers too often focus on the personalities involved with a dispute instead of root causes, research shows.

When problems are dismissed or ignored, they fester and grow into bigger problems.

– See more at: http://www.cioinsight.com/it-management/careers/slideshows/how-to-confront-conflict-in-the-workplace.html#sthash.LkBUUOvQ.dpuf

 

It’s difficult to manage a conflict-free office: Strained relationships among employees account for no less than three out of five difficulties within organizations, research shows. Meanwhile, 43% of non-management workers feel that their bosses do not deal with conflict as well as they should. In covering this topic, the recent book, The Essential Workplace Conflict Handbook: A Quick and Handy Resource for Any Manager, Team Leader, HR Professional, or Anyone Who Wants to Resolve Disputes and Increase Productivity (Career Press/available now), defines the common sources of morale-sapping acrimony while providing best practices in addressing these disputes. Authors Barbara Mitchell and Cornelia Gamlem reveal that CIOs and other managers too often focus on the personalities involved with a situation instead of root causes. They also must understand that their personal approach in dealing with an issue weighs greatly in “making it go away”—or creating even larger problems. The following “conflict myths” and best practices are adapted from the book. Mitchell and Gamlem are HR consultants and co-authors of The Big Book of HR. – See more at: http://www.cioinsight.com/it-management/careers/slideshows/how-to-confront-conflict-in-the-workplace.html#sthash.LkBUUOvQ.dpuf