Christmas shopping for your boss can be a hard situation. First of all buying a Christmas gift for your superiors at work is regarded to be somewhat of a faux pas unless the gift is being bought by a group of employees. While giving Christmas gifts to subordinates is commonly an acceptable practice, gifts from individuals to a boss can be deemed an attempt to gain advantages such as promotions or favorable projects or discourses. As a result care ought to be always be taken when giving Christmas gifts to a boss. This article will have a look at situations in which giving a Christmas gift to your boss is accepted and will extend tips for Christmas shopping for your boss.

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The consideration of good etiquette is also something to be reminded of and noticed at holiday parties at work. As examples, talking and laughing with food in one's mouth, emptying a plate of delightful hors d'ouevres or pocketing candies, cookies or treats to bring home are all regarded as poor etiquette. A Christmas party at work can also provide an chance to have a brief conversation with supervisors, managers and other company officials whom one may not get in contact with oftentimes. It can be the ideal time to leave a good impression on a key administrator. By acquainting yourself and striking up a conversation, it is also placing a face to a name or getting yourself known and sticking out amidst fellow colleagues. For those who are hard workers and who want to elevate such interactions at work holiday and Christmas parties can be beneficial and advantageous.

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Regardless of one’s line of work, a creative thinker uses a set of tools to enhance his or her creativity. The use of the same mental equipment for all purposes explains why a man like Leonardo da Vinci could be, in turn, a painter, a sculptor, a musician, a scientist, an inventor, and an engineer.
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When you are at a career crossroad, you may sometimes question yourself if you really are in the right job. Here are some questions that will help you rate your job satisfaction:

Like a shoe that doesn’t fit, being on the wrong job or wrong workplace will pinch you all day. Eventually, all that “pinching” will take its psychological and physical toll on you. Go ahead and ask yourself these questions to determine whether this manner of earning a living is costing you too much. Read More......

Are you afraid to try something new because you might fail? A lot of people seem frozen by the fear of failure
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Try these guidelines the next time you attempt a new undertaking – and see yourself enjoying a measure of success.

Are you afraid to try something new because you might fail?  A lot of people seem frozen by the fear of failure.  They never participate in activities that might bring themselves embarrassment, ridicule, or humiliation.  They always take the safe route—the route that offers the least chance of mishap or disappointment, the path of caution and inactivity.

The fear of failure becomes for them an emotional paralysis.  It not only robs them of the excitement of achievement in a new field, the joy of mastering a new art of activity, but it also cripples their personality and spirit as physical paralysis cripples the body.  Because of this fear, they sentence themselves to a lifetime confinement in a mental wheelchair, which drastically limits their horizon of discovery and happiness.





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Out of a thousand ideas and changes, only one may be good. However, you may never know which one it is until you try it.

The idea of perfection can be conjured in the minds of men, but it is an illusive “something” which we never quite capture. Perhaps this is good, for it offers a challenge which few can resist accepting. So, the search for perfection never ends, and from this search comes an infinite stream of improvement and amendments. Such is progress.

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The corporate business world is a tough place. Whether you are preparing to start a new job at a firm or you are trying to make a bold statement through power dressing, you would like to be sure that the impression you will be creating is a good one...

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Projecting a professional image involves not only the ideas or proposals you verbally present. You should also dress the part.

When you need to go out to close a big business deal or simply just want to look professional to boost your self-image, here are some tips on ideal business attire for men.


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As a manager or supervisor, we deal with employees to whom tasks are delegated. The company has needs and goals to be met, so do the employees. As humans, there are basic emotional needs to be considered, too. These are the needs for recognition, opportunity, security, and belonging, among others. If good human relation techniques are applied, then getting the work done will be smoother...
READ MORE: How to Get Work Done Through People
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You can learn profound theories of psychology or simple rules for dealing with people, but neither will be of any value until you actually put them to use.

Making good application of your knowledge in a specific situation, involving specific situation, involving specific individuals should be your ultimate objective. There are at least two considerations, however, which complicate the matter of making effective application.

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It’s common knowledge that a picture is worth a thousand words. If that’s true, imagine how much more material you can incorporate into a 30-minute training presentation if visuals are added.

Equally important, the studies show that a trainer who is just an average presenter can become a much better presenter by using strong visual support. In fact, speakers who use visuals are perceived as better prepared, more persuasive, more credible, and more interesting.

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PR or Public relations is about shaping and projecting an image as a key element in the drive for success. Top executives now consider a good image as a basic resource in the same way that they view finance or people. As the interaction between the government, industry, the environment, and the public becomes extremely complex, Public Relations has become an inevitable component of corporate affairs.

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Does procrastination have something to do with motivation? Yes it does. According to psychologists there are several primary reasons why we do what we do. These are the following: we hope to get something we want, we are afraid of getting something we don’t want, and a combination of hope and fear. This important influence on our emotions that tells us to act on our inner urges is called motivation.

The habitual procrastinator always tends to rely on “gut” feel.

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When you’ve got something on your mind you would like your boss to know, how do you get your message through? If your job is not going as well as you’d like, and you think you have a good idea for improving it, how do you tell your boss about it? Here are ten suggestions.
1. Be direct
A great drawback in any communication is lack of clarity. Neither party should have to guess at what the other is trying to say, or have to hope the other will get the point.
2. Be a good listener.
It pays to pick up on your reasons behind a boss’s decision. Doing this could give you a clue on how to modify proposals that are turned down.
3. Be natural and comfortable.
Effective communication is often stumped by nervousness on the part of one or both people involved. One good way to put an end to the jitters is to think through what you want to say in advance.
4. Get to know your boss.
Once you’ve conquered nervousness, focus on getting to know your boss better. Ask questions. Find out your boss’s likes and dislikes. Build in day-to-day informal communication within proprietary bounds. The boss will also know if you are “bootlicking.”
5. Let your boss know you.
Talk to your boss about your interests and goals. Don’t just assume he or she knows. Let your personality come through and highlight your accomplishments. If you think you have done a good job, there is nothing wrong with saying so.
6. Keep your boss informed.
Let your superior know about the progress of your work. If you are behind or anticipate a problem, tell your boss ahead of time. It’s possible he or she can help you. At any rate, if a problem does occur, at least the supervisor will have had a chance to think about it.
7. Ask questions.
It’s too easy for supervisors or managers to assume you know what they want and why you are working on a particular project. If you have a question about your job, speak up. Otherwise, if you end up making a mistake because of lack of information, the supervisor may only see it as poor performance on your part since he or she didn’t know you had questions.
8. Don’t go around your boss.
If you have a problem or question, take it to your immediate supervisor first. Sidestepping your boss on work-related problems only destroys trust and hampers communication.
9. Be thorough.
Try to present a complete and accurate set of details about any situation you discuss with your boss. You may not know everything, but getting only half the facts can cause serious problems and prove to be embarrassing to both you and your boss.
10. Be brief.
Air complaints, make suggestions, discuss goals—but in doing so, be as concise are possible. Supervisors and managers often have several people reporting to them and many activities to track. If your supervisor thinks every conversation with you will last an hour, you probably won’t have many conversations. Through planning, you can keep your talk brief and to the point.


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Fact is, no one likes to think about their blunders. Perhaps this is the reason why some people insist they never have any regrets.

“Regret is an example of a negative emotion that spurs people to problem-solving and personal betterment,” says Dr. Neal Roese, a leading researcher on regret and the author of If Only.

One positive purpose of regret is to help us learn from our mistakes, gain insight, and cultivate hope for the future. It signals us to stop and evaluate.

Full Article: Any Regrets? Use Them to Your Advantage! Read More......

Do you have the urge to write but don’t quite know where to start? Here are some tips for beginning writers.

1. The very basic, yet very important skill you need to have is a good grasp of grammar and spelling. It’s not that scary, really. Read, read, and read. This will help you get really acquainted with the proper usage of the English language. There are plenty of sites out there that can help you review your grammar.

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Writing articles is not that difficult if you have good ideas to write about. An idea becomes good material for an article if it is something new or if it is presented in a fresh manner.

The writer must see his subjects from all angles. An important thing to remember in writing is, “Show it, instead of just saying it.” Here are some tips that might help churn ideas into writing material:

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Many of us can remember situations when we spent so much energy preparing for an event or presentation that when the great day finally arrived, we were so exhausted we just wished it would end quickly.

This area confuses us sometimes that if we do not know which is important and which is urgent, people will frequently drag us around urging us to do what they think is urgent.


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Today, as has always seemed to be the case, we are in dire need of competent leadership in any field or profession we are in. Few of us can boast of innate abilities and natural characteristics that make us competent leaders, without considerable effort. We must work at being leaders in our own rights, if we are to achieve success in any area.

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Sorting through piles of yellowing documents can be a daunting task—especially if you’re not sure what to chuck and what to save. Give the new year a fresh, clean start by following these guidelines.

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Leadership is an art, and like other arts, requires discipline, good techniques and self-expression.
There are some basic rules or formulas connected with an art, but these are primarily guides to self-expressions. Techniques used successfully by some, are perhaps usable by others. However, an individual learning the art must first convert knowledge to techniques, and then perhaps blend them with personal characteristics that lead to self-expression.

Full Article: How to Improve Job Performance Through Good Leadership Read More......

Each of us needs to discover the specific adrenalin-reducing tactics that work best to relax the mind and body.

It is especially easy for many of us to get hooked on the challenges of a job or career, because attachment to a career is so highly valued in our society. While “workaholism” can sometimes mask home or personal problems and basic insecurities, most often it is an addiction to the adrenalin surges brought on by challenge and competition.

Competition is part of our way of life. Schools and businesses depend on and utilize the high that a challenge can create. But there is a black lining to this euphoric could. Stanley Sunderwirth, a prominent biochemist says we are “drugging ourselves” into an artificial existence. The short-term effect is pleasure—but the long term effect may well be stress disease.

However, it is never too late to start controlling the abuse of your body’s defense system. Even if you are an adrenalin addict with advanced heart disease – or you have already experienced a heart attack—you can promote healing and prevent further damage by learning to manage the behavior that creates the problem in the first place.

Each of us needs to discover the specific adrenalin-reducing tactics that work best to relax the mind and body. Many people have found the following tips helpful:

1. Talk audibly to yourself. Tell yourself to calm down, to quit acting as if life were a 100-meter dash. Remind yourself that you are just a part of a bigger whole. If you stop playing Messiah, you will have considerable less stress.

2. Practice conscious physical relaxation. You must allow your body to unwind so that healing and restoration can take place. One way to help your body relax is to exercise regularly. Appropriately tailored to age and level of fitness, exercise can improve not only your physical health but also your mood and general feeling of self-esteem.

3. Remember that frantic behavior does not guarantee success. Though society sometimes rewards us for hurriedness, real happiness and long-term success in a job or at home come only from keeping everything in proper perspective.

4. If you feel you must succeed in the situation before you, ask yourself, “Is the price I must pay really worth the benefit?” The answer will probably restore a sense of balance and remind you of long-term goals and values.

5. Learn to deliberately slow down. Develop the ability to choose to go slow when you need to. What’s the real hurry? Few friends, fellow workers, or superiors will increase their respect for you because you hurry. If anything, most would be more trusting if you slow down.

6. Quickly resolve those emotions that are adrenalin “biggies”: anger, resentment, frustration, irritation, and excitement. Apologize if you are wrong. Bury your hurts that are a result of oversensitivity or cruelty.

7. Review your life goals. Ask, “Is the challenge before me absolutely necessary to my life goal?” Consider carefully if this quest will eventually build you up or just destroy you.

8. Look closely at the faces of those around you. Do they seem like friends or foes? Are you forgetting that they are people also, with right, longings, aspirations, with a need for love? Have you slowed down enough to really understand you children? Do everyone a favor by easing up your demands on them. When you do, a sense of peace will be restored.

9. Relax your expectations and take time to enjoy the world around you. Recover your total personality and poise. Try to be gracious, and keep your perspective about what is really important and necessary.
 
Copyright © 11/29/2009 Athena Goodlight (Socyberty)


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 When you hire a new worker for your business, you select him or her because of the special skill or ability he or she has which you feel you can use.

Whether you like it or not, you get the whole person, not just the employee’s skills and abilities. That includes the habits formed; you may not want these. That employee’s interests are his own and not necessarily like those of any others in your group. He may approach his job with little hidden fears and misgivings; and may be filled with a myriad of unanswered questions about the new environment.

You must answer the questions and, to a certain point, cater to his personal interests, and perhaps go so far as to help him mold a whole new set of habits. As a manager or supervisor, you must make him feel welcome and give him a feeling of being useful, desirable part of your group. What you do for this worker is a part of his induction for which you are responsible.

His ultimate value depends, to a large extent, upon how quickly and how well you help him adjust to his new, unfamiliar surroundings. This cannot be postponed; it must start the first time you meet the new worker and continue as long as he remains with you.


Instructing and Empowering your Worker

Teaching in some ways is not different from other work. You either like it or you so not. If you do not like to teach, you cannot do it successfully.

There is, in this, peculiar hidden truth not too often admitted. If teaching is an essential part of a supervisor’s job, the person who cannot teach successfully is not a truly effective supervisor. All those who define the job supervisor include instruction as an essential part of it. Therefore, you must do instruction if you are to do the whole of a supervisor’s job.

There is, though, a brighter side to the picture. You usually like to do the things you know how to do and learning to instruct is not too difficult. Once you begin to do it and like it, you will find that it can be one of the most interesting parts of your job. It is fascinating to watch people learn and grow. Knowing that you are part of that growth gives you a feeling of actually seeing a part of yourself grow along with the workers.

Good instruction, then, actually produces two very desirable results. First, your workers become more competent and, thus, are capable of doing a better job. Second, you have the personal satisfaction of knowing that through your efforts, each of your workers has improved.

Copyright © 11/28/2009 Athena Goodlight (Bizcovering)


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The percentage of supervisors who lose their jobs because of technical incompetence is quite small as compared to the much greater percentage of supervisors who fail in managerial positions because of the inability to deal effectively with people.

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Even if your budget cannot accommodate an outside consultant you can still launch your own promotion. Remember, too, that what you can save in money, you’ll spend in time. Here are some tips…

1. Conduct your own market research.

State and federal governments collect lots of useful data – so do trade associations and local chambers of commerce. Know your target market and potential costumers. Find out what they want. Study the product you intend to offer, and test if it would work out for your target consumers.

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Why do some office executives – especially overworked businessmen—look prematurely old and die young? How can they avoid worry, hypertension, and an eventual stroke or heart attack?Here are a few practical tips taken straight from the firing line of day-to-day office experience:

Full Article: Four Ways to Live Longer as an Office Executive
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Why can’t some people just say what they mean and mean what they say? Many times we could hardly believe what we hear our friends, even family, or people of authority, say. Many conversational conflicts could be avoided if we are aware of what is really in our subconscious level. A study in speech communication exposed the hidden meanings behind the words we hear is called metatalk.

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As the introducer, you are the connector – the broker – between the speaker and the audience. Here are important points in when introducing the speaker for the event.]Spend only 30-60 seconds of introduction time for five- to 15-minute speeches, and only one to five minutes of introduction time for speeches 15 minutes or longer.

Full Article: How to Deliver an Outstanding Introduction for a Keynote Speaker Read More......

You haven’t been enjoying your work for a while now. You’ve decided you’ll be happier if you totally change career direction. Are you too old to retrain?








Full Article: You Don’t Enjoy Your Work Anymore, Now What? Read More......

Each of us wastes a lot of time. In one year, for example, you can waste a hundred hours – the equivalent of four full days – merely by not using the last five minutes of each working hour.

You can use your minutes more wisely by resolving to use those few minutes in a productive way. Here are some suggestions:



Full Article: Don’t Waste Your Minutes

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You’re at your desk even way beyond office hours every night, and you always volunteer to take on the extra grunt-work projects no one else wants to do. You are hoping that someday you boss will promote you – not necessarily.

Realize that your career can also suffer because you spend too much time on the extra projects leaving you without enough time to devote to your regular, more creative work.

The Pathetic Pushover, you are.
Throwing yourself into your job is great, but being the office “yes-man” or “yes-woman” will only get you a reputation as a wimpy worker bee. You’re acting like a slave, because you treat yourself like one. As a result, your boss and co-workers may end up exploiting you, and in order to feel OK about piling you up with work, they mentally move you down on the corporate ladder to devaluate you in their minds.




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Different people have different reasons for spending more money than they have. Most of the time it is due to emotional causes. One reason is impulsivity.

According to Clifford Vendt, a financial counselor in Salem, New Hampshire the major stumbling block is a total misunderstanding of family financial management, coupled with easy credit, coupled with misunderstanding of the word ’stewardship.’


Full Article: Why People Get Into Debt Read More......

Need a raise? Try these tips:
...Often when an employee is not appreciated, it is simply due to a matter of lack of communication. Never underestimate the value of a written report of your accomplished tasks. They will come in handy.

Full Article: Tips on How to Get a Raise Read More......

If you have several debts to pay off, and your monthly bills are overwhelming, is loan consolidation a smart choice for you?
Loan consolidation, a service offered by many loan and credit-card companies, generally combines the balance of several debts into one new, larger loan with a lower monthly payment thank the individual debts combined.

Full Article: Is Loan Consolidation A Smart Choice? Read More......

If we are in a corporate environment, we work with an average of 400 people during our lives and we’re likely to encounter at least five of them again. At least one of these five could be a potential boss in the future, so it’s important to leave every job on good terms.According to studies, seventy-five percent of people find resigning more stressful than their first interview—but it need not be if you know how to do it correctly.

Full Article: How to Resign with Style Read More......

It is important to bear in mind that looking for a job is first of all a matter of right and positive attitude. You probably won’t find exactly what you want. Be realistic. The employment scene has become very competitive. Education and training requirements are rising for a growing number of jobs. Even a college diploma is not a guarantee for a job.







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The body of the interview holds the bulk of information exchange. This is where the interviewer tell you about the company, and asks you questions about yourself. This is also the where you volunteer pertinent information and ask questions you need answers to. For most graduates, however, the interviewer’s questions comprise the majority of the interview, so that’s a good place to begin. Here are the 15 most commonly asked interview questions.


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Have you ever forgotten where you left your keys while rushing out the door or grabbed for the bag of M&M’s when faced with a rapidly approaching deadline? If so, you may have been under the spell of cortisol—a fight-or-flight hormone that has recently been linked to heart disease, high blood pressure, memory loss and weight gain.


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According to chronobiologists, it’s not just how you get things done that really matters– it’s when. Whether you’re pitching a new project or asking for a raise, there’s a perfect time of day to do it, says Timothy monk, Ph. D., director of human chronobiology at the University Of Pittsburg School Of Medicine.

Here’s the basic schedule that chronobiology experts recommend we follow:

Full Article: Work More Efficiently: Follow Your Body Clock Read More......

Want to become smarter? Try these three simple tips.
Keeping it active with regular mental gymnastics such as quizzes, anagrams, crossword puzzles helps reduce brain fade and forgetfulness...


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