How to find a career-boosting mentor March 5, 2015 Just nine minutes a day is all you need to make your professional network more useful. Finding a mentor or sponsor is a great way to climb the career ladder, but as many as four in ten women could be missing out by avoiding networking altogether. In a recent study, 43 per cent of [...]
Four steps to smarter networking March 4, 2015 To break from the crowd and build more effective connections, use these simple strategies. Career success is hardly a matter of sitting quietly at your desk every day. A 2012 study of over 6,000 executives in the US and Europe by French researchers concluded that those who had more developed professional networks were more likely [...]
Why employers are yet to suss out Generation Y March 3, 2015 Younger employees are more likely to value loyalty than you think. With a growing economy and job creation on the up, there are increasing opportunities for young people to get onto – and climb – the career ladder. But just because career prospects are looking positive, that doesn’t mean that it’s business as usual [...]
What will the office of 2030 be like? Ergonomic boulders and contact lenses that tell you what to eat March 2, 2015 Will the workplace really look – or feel – very different in 15 years’ time? Will treadmill and recumbent bicycle standing desk add-ons be normal? And will wearables mean we never have to move to speak to a colleague? Will informal relationships be forged next to AI coffee machines? Will we even be in an [...]
The presentation tips you don’t know March 1, 2015 Revisiting PowerPoint and knowing when to chill out will make a crucial difference. Tell stories, pause, make eye contact, know your audience, prepare, “cut the fat”, smile, breathe, be yourself, start strong, close stronger, show passion and, whatever you do, ditch the bullet points. Can you achieve it all in a presentation? It’s all [...]
Three damaging state of mind myths February 26, 2015 If you believe it’s external factors that alter how you feel at work, you should think again. At the World Economic Forum this year, there were a record number of sessions about mental wellbeing. But despite our good intentions, there is a fundamental and widespread misperception about state of mind and its place in the [...]
Inbox anxiety: How to regain control of email February 25, 2015 Why you don’t need to be a perfectionist to boost your productivity. The average office worker now sends or receives 121 emails a day, according to a recent report by the Radicati Group. Given the volume of traffic passing through people’s inboxes, it’s unsurprising that many suffer from email-related anxiety. If you’re drowning in spam, [...]
Four secrets to bag that dream technology job February 24, 2015 Project work and up-skilling will trump a relevant degree. The UK’s IT jobs market is thriving, requiring a constant stream of candidates to fill new roles. Technology is at the forefront of growth, but the current skills shortage has led to the highest demand for IT staff since 1998. Moreover, in the last five years, [...]
What is mindfulness? And why does your office need it? February 24, 2015 Use it to replace personal negativity, team in-fighting or the feared office manager approach. In the modern office environment of instant information, immediate reaction, and 24/7 availability, it can be difficult to achieve any kind of mental balance – to deal with tricky situations or to tune out distractions. But there is something that [...]
Rediscover the art of conversation at work in easy steps February 22, 2015 Making an effort to build new relationships pays big dividends. How often do you walk into your office and it’s quiet enough to hear a pin drop? Are your colleagues constantly plugged into their headphones, heads down, and cracking through their to-do lists? Do you even know their names? While we all need space [...]