Posts Tagged personal development
the worst words you can ever hear
“well, we can’t [blank]. but keep thinking about these things and bringing them up.”
if you hear those words in your job — leave it.
i’m not joking. those are quite possibly the worst words that you could ever hear from your manager. those words say, “we’re not committed to diverse viewpoints.” they say, “we’re not committed to rewarding people for good work.” and worst of all, they say, “we’re not committed to being agile. we don’t like change.”
you don’t want to work for a company that doesn’t want to change. find a new job while you still have one. in your interview process with any new, potential employers, be sure to ask “how do you solve problems?” and “i have big ideas. if i wanted to change things, what kind of resistance would i face?”
you need to feel free to make the changes you see fit, and you need to have leadership that will allow you to change the world… even if it’s their world.
stories: they’re not just for bedtime anymore
photo by JoeyChong, flickr artist
one of the most important communication tools is storytelling. we tell stories to entertain. we tell stories to enlighten. Â stories help us in so many ways.
here are just a few ways that you should use stories to help achieve your goals…
tell stories in your presentations!
when you have presentations, nothing drives home your point(s) better than stories. always build up to something. lay the foundations for the information you’re talking about. show the progression and how one idea builds upon the other, then — in the end — bring it all together.  ”here we take a look at the individual units. next, we’re able to compare the information for those units for a single point in time. now that we have information for one point in time, we can combine those points to create a trend and forecast out the future.” create a commentary and find a voice track that supplements and enhances your story. and above all else, use metaphors! there’s no better way to introduce a concept that’s foreign and may make no sense to someone than through relating that information to a concept they do know.
more after the jump! Read the rest of this entry »