Four of the 10 roles on the list are considered to be blue-collar: truck driver, welder, general labourer and heavy duty mechanic
Wondering what the most in demand jobs are this year? Randstad Canada, which is in the human resources services industry, has compiled a top 10 list which includes a range of sectors. But the growing need for skilled and blue-collar workers stands out, it said on Monday, and four of the 10 roles on the…
Men lie about their accomplishments, salaries, and status. Women, by contrast, lie to minimize their perceived deficiencies
I don’t mean that men tell more lies, or are better at lying. But men and women lie about different things. When men lie, it’s often to look bigger – taller, richer, more powerful and more sexually attractive. In both personal ads and in face-to-face conversations, men tend to “inflate” the numbers by saying they…
By being kind, we give those around us hope and inspiration
Mindfulness is a hot trend in organizational effectiveness, with employee programs popping up in innovators like Google and stalwarts like General Mills (Why Google, Target, and General Mills Are Investing in Mindfulness, Harvard Business Review). The demonstrated benefits of mindfulness practices, such as meditation, are mounting. As good and important as mindfulness is (I am…
Most job candidates have unrealistic fantasies about their resume, so here is our advice to make sure yours gets more than a perfunctory read
Most job candidates have unrealistic fantasies about their resume. The first fantasy is believing that their resume is exceptional and will actually be read. The second is that all resumes are given a perfunctory read. Now the truth. Few resumes are exceptional, and a tiny fraction of the resumes received by organizations are actually read.…
At mid-life, as we long to reshape our lives and careers, and do something more meaningful, we could learn a thing or two from millennials
Several years ago, I had the sudden, blessed opportunity to step off my hamster wheel – the success-oriented, fast-paced career where I put my work first and tried to shoehorn in everything else. Balance was a see-saw – when one side went up, the other went down. It was a life of sacrifice and compromise,…
Team spirit can quickly disintegrate as individuals who feel that they are being discounted simply withdraw
You are brought into a room to play a computer game. On the screen you see your avatar, a computerized graphic that represents you in this virtual environment. You also spot the avatars for two other players, both of whom you assume are physically located with their own computers in similar rooms. At first it…
Change isn't difficult. What is difficult is doing things when you don't really want to
So it's a new year. The pressure to look optimistically and confidently ahead, to resolve to change old ways and embrace the new, is palpable. The media, with tiresome predictability, are chock-full of advice from the experts on how to make and stick to your resolutions. Forget it. Most people really don't want to change,…
When your ego is taking a bashing, staying objective and true to who you are can be difficult
When your ego is taking a bashing, staying objective and true to who you are can be difficult. But as Dr. Seuss said, “Be who you are and say what you want, because those who mind don't matter and those who matter don't mind.” A good friend of mine has been struggling with leading a…
Discontinuous change is like leaping off a cliff while building your parachute on the way down
There are two kinds of change – incremental and discontinuous – that are taking place simultaneously and constantly in today’s business organizations. Incremental change is the process of continuous improvement – what the Japanese refer to as “kaizen.” Discontinuous change is the kind of large-scale transformation that turns organizations inside out and upside down. Incremental…
As a leader you must make it a routine part of your decision-making process to ask the question: Will this be perceived as equitable?
Let's play a game. Here are the rules: We'll be asked to split a sum of money. I get to make the split and you get to choose whether to accept or reject the split. And if you reject it, both of us will walk away empty-handed. Rationally, I should realize my advantage and offer…
In the world of sports for example, becoming successful is contingent on positive habits
When we talk about habits, most of us immediately reflect on those we wish to break or remove. Habits like smoking, overeating, alcohol consumption, gambling and chewing ones nails, etc. seem an easy pattern to fall into, but stopping them somehow seems so much harder. We start out with such great intentions towards daily exercise…
How to create a training program that builds relationships and increases sales
There is a lot of on-the-job training required when it comes to creating an effective sales team. A massive amount of information, after all, is needed to learn the job if it is to be done well. But in addition to book knowledge, sales skills require a lot of practice if your team hopes to…
25 per cent of people who move into a new job will fail. Paying attention to these six common mistakes will help make sure you are not one of them
What happens when leaders take on new roles or responsibilities in their company? 'Onboarding' – the process of acquiring, accommodating, assimilating and accelerating new team members, whether they come from outside or inside the company – has focused almost exclusively on employees who join from the outside. But there is usually a lot more internal…
In the gig economy, more and more of us will be out on our own. That means we need to hone new skills to help our enterprises succeed
As 2019 morphs into 2020, more than numbers on the calendar are changing. Technology, communications, media, weather – even the way we work and earn our livings – aren’t what they used to be. It used to be jobs, jobs, jobs. That’s what we wanted for ourselves, our partners, our kids; it's what politicians promised…
Respecting another person's space can help you build rapport with your colleagues and close sales with your clients
As a consultant and professional speaker, I often travel by myself and frequently dine alone. This affords me the opportunity to combine two of my favourite pastimes: eating great food and watching people. One night at dinner in an ocean-side resort, I noticed a man and a woman seated across the room. It was a…