Try these techniques and habit-changers out before your next job interview:

Get into shape:

Working out and getting fit as a result is a great way to boost your confidence. The results, when it comes to being interviewed, are obvious: the better you feel about your health and appearance, the more likely you are to perform well. In addition, employers tend to find candidates who appear to be in shape to be more attractive as members of the workforce.

Few deep breathing exercises before you step in the building will do you good – it helps in pumping in more oxygen the brain and relaxes muscle tension. If you’re in good shape you’ll naturally feel good about yourself and that’s a big deal in displaying confidence!

Avoid caffeine:

Consuming caffeine leads to increased heart rate, which in turn leads to increased anxiety and poor decision-making skills. Skip coffee and other sources of caffeine prior to an interview. If you can’t go without caffeine without getting a splitting headache, then reduce your caffeine intake slowly over time in order to prevent it having an impact on your performance during an interview.

You can take along some healthy juice or drink that you can have in-between interviews that day – in case you are required to interview or meet with a couple of teams spanning a few hours.

Eat light:

You definitely want something in your stomach prior to your interview, or else the subconscious concern for food will affect your performance. But at the same time, you want to avoid stuffing yourself full, which will cause you to become sluggish. A light meal an hour or so before your interview will give you the energy you need without compromising your effectiveness at responding to the questions of a potential employer.

Read the news:

While you wait for your interview, focus on news and other unrelated information. News in particular has a way of putting your interview in perspective. After reading about armed conflict and natural disasters, your “high stakes” interview won’t seem like such an unconquerable feat anymore. Browse through the magazines in the waiting area, it also gives a good perspective on what subscriptions appeals to the management there. What’s important here is that it just gets your nerves more relaxed – focusing on something else other that what you’ve been stressing about in the last few hours helps in easing the tension.

Interview often:

This is really the only way you can ever expect to naturally improve your interviewing skills. The more interviews you experience, the better prepared you’ll be for the next one, and ultimately the better you’ll perform. Follow every lead through to the end. Either you’ll find the job you’re looking for, or gain much-needed experience. Either way it’s a win-win.

Avoid focusing on interview tips that instruct you on how to behave and think. The result will surely be too much time spent thinking about answering questions effectively, instead of simply effectively answering the questions themselves. Commit to the aforementioned in order to be as natural as possible during the interview process. You’ll discover that being yourself goes quite a long way.

Here’s a quick list of things to do and things not do on your first day:

The Dos:

Learn the pecking order of your superiors.

Find out who has the ability to fire you and, more importantly, who has the ability to fire them. Once you know the pecking order you will be in a better position to evaluate what you should do when multiple assignments come in at once. One supervisor’s “I need you to do this” may be considerably more important than the other. It is good to know who you are reporting to and what is the general overall org structure in the company. The HR would be glad to offer this info or it might be online on the intranet.

Ask lots of questions.

This is the day when no question is stupid. In fact, whoever is training you will probably say that “there is no stupid question.” Take advantage of this levity by finding out as much as you can about the company and the kinds of assignments you’ll be tasked with. Ideally, you should carry around a notebook and record the answers to these questions. Not only does this make you look like a diligent employee, you’ll benefit from not having to pester your co-workers with incessant questions later on down the road.

Not only your co-workers must talk to the HR on all necessary paperwork that could be required from a new hire. You would have already done so but it is a good idea to double check and go through the important papers that need your immediate attention.

Query your co-workers about aspects of the job.

Don’t be too nosy about it, but you should take advantage of your status as the new guy to find out what people really think about the job. People open up to new workers, either to vent or to impart knowledge. Either can benefit you in the long run.

It is a day to observe and get to know the team you would be working with. Take it easy though not everything can be done in a day but a good start adds a lot to your confidence and diligence.

The Don’ts:

Don’t confuse your desk and computer as your personal work station.

Remember that everything you view on your computer may very well be monitored. Don’t use it to watch YouTube videos, check your personal email or space out on Facebook. In general, until you know your company’s policy on down time you should do whatever you can to not slack off.

Don’t speak too casually or inappropriately with your co-workers.

No matter how nice or jovial your co-workers seem, no matter how good of a sense of humor they have or how openly they talk about their private lives, when you’re first starting a job DO NOT make inappropriate jokes or reveal racy details about your life. Not only is this unprofessional, it may be illegal. Talking about dating, for example, can be construed as sexual harassment. This is rare, of course, but why take a chance on a new job?

Don’t put up a shabby appearance.

Yes, you’ve got the job, but that doesn’t mean it’s time to let yourself go. How you present yourself makes a hug impact on your employers and colleagues. Most people dress well when they start a new job. This should also extend to behavior and demeanor. You want to come across as both well-groomed and psychologically healthy.

These are just a few tips for how to approach your first day on the job. The basic motivating trope here is to be professional, intake as much information as possible, and learn as much as you can about how the company is structured.

What has been your experience on the first day at a new job?

This is a guest post by Susanna Cha.

This is the question that I had been asking myself once I received three job offers after an extensive job hunt. Before going into this, I’d like to share the techniques that I used in finding a job.

My Background

I’m a recent MSc Marketing graduate and I therefore thought it was of importance to find a job whereby I can turn all of the theory I had learned, into practise. I knew that I wasn’t going to find a job that could offer me all aspects of marketing, so I decided on what I believed I liked the most and was the most interesting; direct and digital marketing. I decided to do an extra course next to my Masters education and received a certificate. The reason why I did this was because I knew this would have a positive effect on my CV. Having just a plain CV with your education isn’t that special, but listing extra educational achievements might make it stand more out I believed. I was taught during career courses that it is all about your unique selling point and it is important to know what your unique selling point is, otherwise you can’t “sell” yourself. I knew that along with the three languages I speak and the extra educational achievements, my CV would stand out a bit more than the general CV’s.

My Job Hunt

Once I graduated, the job hunt began. I was unsure if I wanted to stay in the UK or go to the Netherlands so I started applying in both countries. I subscribed myself to recruitment websites in the Netherlands and applied for three companies. Although I was invited for three job interviews at digital marketing agencies in the Netherlands, I unfortunately did not make it through to the next stage. I think this was because of my lack in confidence as I remember being so nervous.

Tip

I therefore believe that it is good to apply for many jobs at the same time even if you don’t necessarily want to work for company X. Gaining the interview experience will boost your confidence significantly so just use them as practise material.

After three rejections I got a bit nervous as I was unsure how long it would take me until I would have a job, but important here is to carry on hunting and not to let it get to you. I continued my search by using recruitment websites such as Guardian Jobs and also searched for digital marketing agency lists in the area where I knew I wanted to be.

Tip

If you know the type of role you’d like have and the sort of industry you want to work in, use recruitment websites and upload your CV. Also, use search engines and type in the kind of industry or companies and the area you prefer to work in. In my case this was “digital marketing agencies Leeds”. This is a good method to use for job hunting, as some companies don’t advertise their vacancies outside of their own website.

Then I looked on their websites to see if any of them were listing vacancies. This approach really helped as I had send out five applications and received three interviews. The interviews went well as I was more prepared for the kind of questions they would ask me due to the other interviews that I had in The Netherlands.  Surprisingly, all three companies wanted to hire me so I had a tough choice to make.

The Deciding Factor

From the three companies that offered the role, it was easy to rule out company X as this company only offered me £15.000 per annum. Then I needed to decide upon company Y and Z. When I walked into company Y, I did not feel very welcome as the atmosphere was quite neutral. The interview itself also wasn’t great as both gentlemen who interviewed me seemed very serious and strict, whereas the people who interviewed me at company Z were laughing, making jokes, and showed some expression in their faces.

Company Y offered me £17.000 per annum plus bonuses and company Z offered me £16.000 annum. Also company Y was only a 10 minute walk whereas company Z was a 30 minute bus drive. On top of that, I knew that if I would chose company Z I would need to pay an £80 per month for bus tickets. The choice was not easy but I eventually decided to go with company Z due to the company atmosphere. Right when I walked in, the receptionist was very kind, make a quick social talk with me and offered me coffee, unlike company Y where I was not spoken to by anyone accept for the interviewers. This eventually made me decide to take the job offer from company Z.

Tip

If you find yourself in a similar situation and unless the salary differences are huge, I would suggest you to take a company’s atmosphere into consideration. Even if you receive £50 more per month, it is so important to feel welcome and to be happy when going to work. I believe I made the right decision as we are growing significantly with new people coming in every month. I hope my story will help you in the process of choosing one company over the other. Good luck with the job hunt!

About the author of this post:

This guest post was written by Susanna Cha who writes for Guardian Jobs including graduate and internship job opportunities in sectors including charity, finance, retail, local government, teaching and retail.

If you had a choice to choose between a better paying job or a better company culture – what would you choose and why?

Never become so much of an expert that you stop gaining expertise. View life as a continuous learning experience. ~ Denis Waitley

Your most productive investment lies in employee development. In a highly competitive workforce, it is important to attract, engage and retain skilled professionals. You don’t usually see bored, highly skilled employees in your cubicles because they’ve already moved to an exciting or more nurturing company – organizations which favor employee development as part of their company culture are the choice of the new generation of workers.

Research indicates that workers have three prime needs: Interesting work, recognition for doing a good job, and being let in on things that are going on in the company. ~ Zig Ziglar

If you’re starting a new company or going through a re-org, make sure you keep enough funds for employee learning and development to retain and attract talent – the most valuable asset.

Use Learning Management Systems for Training Employees

With the average age of your employees below 30, it is quite evident that technology based learning would be more appreciated and well received.

A learning management system (LMS) is a software application for the administration, documentation, tracking, and reporting of training programs, classroom and online events, e-learning programs, and training content. A robust LMS should be able to do the following:

• centralize and automate administration
• use self-service and self-guided services
• assemble and deliver learning content rapidly
• consolidate training initiatives on a scalable web-based platform
• support portability and standards
• personalize content and enable knowledge reuse.

[Source: Wikipedia]

LMS s usually provide access to discussion forums where the instructors and employees can post messages and have access to chat rooms and webinar tools.

Virtual classrooms offer interactive learning and can get as creative as you are in designing the learning modules.

Benefits of E-Learning

Reduces travel time, improved performance and learning, training at your own pace empowers and motivates employees. It is critical and essential in the competitive times of fast evolving tech front that learning and career development must be a well set process which adds to your current skill set and improves your productivity at work.

Investing in learning and development is reinforced in growth oriented companies. Management of many Fortune 500 companies have seen that providing coaching, training support and efficient learning has resulted in employees excelling at their work and many sales reps surpassed their goals by as much as 30 percent.

Best Practices to get the best out of the E-Learning Programs

• Introducing gaming and other motivational strategies that suit your audience is an excellent way to engage your employees in e-learning or self-learning programs. Gaming style- short instructional video with more interaction is often preferred by learners and the key to sustain the learning process.

• Giving a customized solution is not easy but that’s where the true effectiveness of any solution or learning begins. All your employees are not at the same performance level; they have different skill set and expertise – and that’s exactly why they cannot be on the same level of learning and development.

• Seeing how their learning can be applied to the actual workplace scenario by examples and case studies offers better results in learning acceptance. Share best practices that are being incorporated in your company culture – employees love to see the bigger picture, how their long term goals match up to the company’s vision.

• Foster collaboration and interaction, self-learning for longer lengths of time can be boring and de-motivating making it a social experience can take it to a different level.

• The learning process must be a part of your career development and performance evaluation system to make it more accountable and result oriented. Not something to be checked off a checklist but seen as a process that grows on a continuous rhythm or learning on different levels.

• Instructors must often assign work assignments, tests on every module or level of progress. It’s important to know where the learner is struggling and which topics seem easy or less relevant.

• Regular feedback on the e-learning sessions is a must. Your goal is to keep the learner positively engaged in the learning experience.

• Extend these e-learning sessions to the next level of earning certifications. Clearing through a few levels of learning the learners can be offered to pass a proficiency exam to proceed to another level or earn a certification. Rewards and recognitions are motivating.

• Be versatile and get your e-learning modules mobile. Can your employee access all information on the web, smartphones or tablets? Use the new tools to get ahead of the game, in fact in the fast changing landscape soon enough it would be the only way to get on demand learning exciting to your employees. Many universities (especially business schools) across the globe are launching iPad pilot programs extending their learning programs beyond the classrooms and enterprising companies would not be far behind.

Using Effective Social Media Learning Techniques

According to the CARA Group:

Despite concerns that expertise through social media is hard to verify, security is challenging to maintain and risks of distraction are high, social media’s strength and popularity continues to grow. In fact, this resilience despite marketplace concerns is often the hallmark of technology adoption. With the very large and influential millennial generation joining the workforce in a marketplace rife with social media tools and technologies, employers cannot afford to ignore its influence in the workplace and on employee habits and skills.
To make the most of social media-sponsored informal learning, CARA advises employers to consider the following strategies.

Strategy One: Choose Your Tools

Identify the social media tools you feel are most beneficial to your enterprise and endorse them as workplacefriendly learning resources. If employees know that LinkedIn is considered a work-friendly workplace tool, but not Facebook, they have guidelines for their informal learning choices. Some businesses—especially those with heavy regulatory restrictions—will choose to create internal collaboration and social media applications that allow for the rich networking and information-sharing abilities while minimizing security and confidentiality risks. Others will align social media sites and tools with their industry and guide employees to the resources that offer the most learning potential.

 

Strategy Two: Begin to Build a Code of Conduct for Social Media

Employees, like employers, are still learning their way around social media. Recent court cases regarding what can and can’t be said via social networks are just one piece of evidence that this is very new workplace territory. CARA advises businesses to work in partnership with employees to define how social media can and should be used in the workplace for learning purposes. For every organization, this process will be different so it is important to incorporate learning teams, employees and management into the collaboration process.

Rather than looking at this from a Draconian perspective—what cannot be done, what rules should be in place, what punishments should be—CARA encourages businesses to embrace the knowledge opportunity.  Find out from employees how social media are enhancing their productivity. Find out how to encourage more self-directed learning and ideas for maintaining focus and security integrity.

 

Strategy Three: Social Media Lunch and Learn

Consider hosting some lunch and learn sessions via an internal social media tool. For example, every third lunch and learn could occur via webcast as a way to include colleagues from many geographies and increase the use of new media workers across all generations. This approach will not only help workers across generations increase their comfort with web-based collaborative learning, but will also give learning leaders ways to analyze the pros and cons of in-person versus online informal learning events.

 

The source for the social media information is an amazing survey report by the CARA group.

What Learning Management Systems have you found most effective for employee development?

Restaurant Consultants

Now let’s add the sustainability component to your consulting job description – when preparing for a career as a Sustainability consultant you would add another role to your job – how to incorporate green sustainable practices in the restaurant operations and developing customized best practices policies suited to the restaurants needs. Sustainability consultants have an important and socially responsible role to promote sustainable practices in businesses and show them that they can considerably improve their bottom line with energy efficiency and resource conservation.

Overall a very satisfying career – your contribution in conserving resources and reducing the environmental impact is a positive contribution toward reducing greenhouse emissions, overall improved environment and of course – promoting healthy food choices.

Required or expected Education

• A bachelors degree in environmental sciences
• Having a management degree in hospitality industry could be to your advantage.
• MBA related to sustainability
• Or relevant experience and expertise in the industry

Salary Range

$65,000 to $90,000 and more is a possibility.

Role and Responsibilities

Sustainability consultants support clients (restaurant owners)

Can cover but not limited to:

• In general: Supporting compliance, operational efficiency and sustainability initiatives.
• Providing clients with energy usage analysis, greenhouse gas emissions information, sustainable material buying, local food buying best practices and sustainability action plans.
• Assisting your clients in conserving resources, reducing waste and material and overall reducing the environmental impact of the restaurants’ operation.
• LEED restaurant development
• Support or complete the process of green restaurant certification
• Informing clients on making sustainable food choices for a healthier or organic menu
• Developing zero-waste programs
• Helping restaurants achieve or maintain their Conditionally Exempt Small-Quantity Generator (CESQG) status
• Offer sustainability tips and latest industry news to their clients which can be helpful in furthering the best practices
• Guidance or training to employees on sustainable practices

Other Supporting Job Titles

• Green Restaurant Advisor
• Sustainable Foodservice Consultant

Who’s Hiring Restaurant Sustainability Consultants?

Greening of the restaurant industry is a trend that’s here to stay and restaurant sustainability consultants would see an increase in demand in the coming years.

• Work independently as a consultant for restaurants.
• Join Green Restaurant Association in their consulting team.
• Join some independent consulting firm engaged in sustainable consulting offering to clients. This gives you a wider experience since you can also use your consulting services in non-foodservices area.

Where to Look for Jobs for Restaurant Sustainability Consultants?

It is not very common to find many such jobs floating around – as always what matters is how you present your personal brand, even with little experience what is required is how you can help create a job for yourself. Even though working as a sustainability consults for a restaurant maybe your dream job, keep other options open to work in sustainability area for other companies and use your experience of a couple of years to enter the restaurant industry.

• LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter could also be good starting point essentials for those who are well into social network. Look up the profiles of those who have “been there done that” in this field. They could be an important information resource to know how to get your foot in this industry or ask for referrals – don’t be shy to ask them to be your mentor. People love to help if they have time and also when asked appropriately.
• Join Foodservice Consultants Society International (FCSI) which is a premier association promoting professionalism in foodservice and hospitality consulting.

Also, instead of finding out who’s hiring your first step probably should to find out WHY these restaurants interested in integrating sustainable practices? Is it for cost reduction, greening their operations, conserving resources, increasing profitability – the answer could well be all of the above. Work toward presenting a case or portfolio where you can help these restaurants with a study, analysis, example or just your passion in achieving these goals. Even with no previous experience there are quite a few tools available online which you can easily master or present to your clients with examples on instant ROI calculations and increased savings calculations as a result of sustainable initiatives. Some tools, web apps can also help you here – more information below.

Websites and Applications helping Sustainability Consultants

• Dinegreen.com – Green Restaurant Association website which helps restaurants in Environmental Assessment, Environmental Consulting, Green Certification and Green Public Relations and Marketing.

• 500gallons.com is a new start-up in the growing field of restaurant sustainability. Encouraging sustainable actions and behavior change, this website can be of immense value to a restaurant sustainability consultant with an easy to use web application: “Use the site for research, customizing the results and informing your customers about the “green steps” that can help reduce their carbon footprints or add to overall operational savings. You also have access to the latest eco-friendly and energy efficient products and equipment in the marketplace which can help achieve sustainability goals for your restaurant clients.”

Using such tools to research and confirm the restaurants sustainable actions you can help market restaurants better – bringing sustainability, profitability and attracting customer loyalty at the same time!

What have I missed?

Any other info that you might be familiar with regarding this career – pls do share in comments below.

*By 2020 the National Restaurant Association expects 1.3 million restaurant jobs to be created across all areas of the industry.*

Cooks and food preparation workers held 3.0 million jobs in 2008. Employment of cooks and food preparation workers is expected to increase by 6 percent over the 2008–18 decade. Job opportunities for cooks and food preparation workers are expected to be good because of high turnover and the need to replace the workers who leave these occupations. ~ Source: bls.gov

Considering a career change to the food service industry – here are some important tips that you must know. And before you enroll in the latest culinary schools or all set to acquire the latest degrees in hospitality – stop – your first step is crucial for a satisfying career change. It is gaining more knowledge about this industry and about yourself through some planned research and analysis. What inspires you, what skills that you have currently can be applied to this career transition and what are the viable options for making a good living in the food service career?

And the first step is identifying whether you a Generalist or a Specialist? Take a few hours to find out which of the following appeals to you the most – acquiring degrees thereafter and changing careers then becomes a well-researched step.

Identifying Skills and Interest

The Generalist

As a generalist you very well be the owner of a restaurants, hotel or resort. or a general manager – the title says it all here! With responsibilities from managing the facility, hiring people, overseeing finances and revenues, supervising staff and much more.. the generalist can have many responsibilities. Also waiters are generalists, they must be aware of the menu, beverage choices, food ingredients, specials and above all serving guests , customers in the best possible way. If you are looking for part-time jobs joining in as a wait staff / hostess / bus person could be some options to explore.

The Specialist

There are perhaps a lot more specialists in the food industry than those I list here, do share in comments below if you can add on to the list here:

• Chef or Kitchen Manager – get the kitchen staff organized for efficient cooking and perhaps should know how to prepare all dishes that would be on the menu
• Sommeliers – wine specialists in fine dining restaurants who focus on wine lists.
• Grill Cook – specialist in grill cooking
• Baker – baking specialists
• Bartenders – specialist in the beverage department

Other than BOH ‘in-the-kitchen’ jobs,  there’s always an option on a freelancing career – as a restaurant consultant. Restaurant consultants assist restaurant owners how to run the business efficiently and profitably. Consultants are usually hired for their services – if you have good finance and technical skills with a passion to enter the food industry this could be a viable option.

For more info on various roles in the restaurant you can visit foodservicewarehouse.com. And for more in-depth information on salary structure, growth outlook there’s of course the best source bls.gov.

Researching Job Boards

Your next step is furthering your research on the titles that suit your skill set and passion the most to get a practical idea of what the job truly desires and offers – skill set, salary range, working hours and general demand. Once you are through this step you have a thorough understanding of current job scenario and what the skills that you might want to add to your current portfolio.

Here are a few job boards where you can scan through the job descriptions which often cite the required education, degrees and roles and responsibilities in the food service career.

• http://www.jobs2order.com/ – offers Restaurant & Food Service Management, Hourly & Part Time Jobs postings
• http://www.foodservice.com/employment/ – Explore exciting careers in the world of restaurants and hospitality
• http://www.hcareers.com/ – Jobs in the hospitality industry

FOH BOH Career Progression

FOH career plan: greeter –> busser  –> back waiter  –> waiter  –> head waiter / trainer  –> assistant manager  –>  general manager

BOH career plan: dishwasher  –> prep cook  –> pantry cook  –> line cook  –> sauté cook  –> sous chef  –> executive sous chef  –> executive chef
(2)

General Terminology in Food Service Industry

Some terms that you might like to be familiar with when you begin on the quest for a restaurant career, this also can be your starting steps to your new career – to identify where you would want to work and what options are out there other than the restaurant next door.

• QSR – Quick Service Restaurant
• FOH BOH – Front of House, Back of House (dining area / kitchen)
• Fast Casual – A fast casual restaurant is a type of restaurant that does not offer full table service, but promises a higher quality of food and atmosphere than a fast food restaurant. (1)
• Family Style – Family style restaurants are a type of casual dining restaurants where food is often served on platters and the diners serve themselves. (1)
• Casual – A casual dining restaurant is a restaurant that serves moderately-priced food in a casual atmosphere. Except for buffet-style restaurants, casual dining restaurants typically provide table service. (1)
• Fine Dining – Fine dining restaurants are full service restaurants with specific dedicated meal courses. (1)
• Bistro and brasserie – bistro usually indicates either a fast casual dining restaurant with a European-influenced menu or cafés with a larger menu of food. (1)
• Bar/Tavern – where people gather to drink alcoholic beverages and be served food. (1)
• Contracted Food Service – Through the contract service food can be served on-site at your restaurant, café, and cafeteria.
• Catering – Provide (food and drink), typically at social events and in a professional capacity
• Hotels / Resorts – Hotels and resorts offer wide range of dining options, from bakeries to bars, fast food and fine dining all options might be available here.

(1)    : (Source: Wikipedia)

(2)    : (Source Start Your Restaurant Career: by Entrepreneur Press)

Have you recently transitioned to a food service career or assist others in doing so? Please do share your thoughts in comments below to help those in transition.

And, in spite or because of these things, it can also be a huge drag.

Let’s face it: sometimes networking is no fun. And, doing the “grip and grin” when you’re not in the mood can have a counterproductive effect. So, how do you get out and do it, and do it right, even when you’d rather just blow the whole thing off?

These three tips should help get you in motion even when the couch is singing its most seductive siren song.

1. RSVP

Many conferences and meetings are announced and coordinated via electronic services like Eventbrite or some other scheduling method, and committing to the RSVP list is a great way to stay in the game.

Professionals keep their appointments and sending an RSVP to an event, especially when other prospective attendees can see who has registered, is a great way to instill a little automatic incentive in a networking plan.

It’s true that this may not change your mood about attending, but that’s where #2 comes in …

2. Focus on Fun

Sometimes the thought of being professional can get in the way of having fun, but that doesn’t have to be the case. Networking events are typically geared to facilitate interaction, which usually means food, drink and activities are available to help keep the social gears well-oiled.

The recommendation here is to stay engaged. Eat the food, drink the drinks and enjoy it! Let go of the “too cool for school” persona and play the little get-to-know-you games. It’s a great way to inject a little fun into the event and will show people you have charisma.

Studies show time and again that confidence and social savvy gets more deals inked than being smart, and regardless of the rightness of that fact it is more often the one who participates who reaps the rewards.

3. Buddy Up

There are (usually) no rules stating who can attend what networking event, and people can take advantage of that fact by inviting a friend or even a date along for the ride. Of course, it will help if that friend is also interested in the networking community at hand, but even if not it can still make a positive difference.

Having someone else there to share the moment can provide a sounding board for better communication, a foil for added humor or a buffer to help avoid unwanted contact. A good wingman (or wingwoman) can enrich the networking experience by keeping you more engaged and upbeat, especially when conference doldrums set in.

So, remember …

Sign up early, keep fun in mind and invite a friend, and there’s no doubt you’ll get more out of networking more often. Who knows? You may even start to like it.

About the guest author James Madeiros:

James Madeiros writes for Criminal Justice Degree Schools, a career site providing information on how to earn a paralegal degree or criminal justice degree and insights into careers from blood spatter analyst to FBI agent.

Temperatures and Ventilation

For those working indoors, prolonged exposure to excessive levels of humidity can create health problems. Therefore it is important that work premises are adequately ventilated, both through windows, but also from properly maintained air-conditioning systems.

Measures for those working in extreme cold or heat
For those working in temperatures outside of the norm, there are greater attendant health risks which you must address in any risk assessment.

• Amongst the measures that you may choose to implement are the introduction of heat measures, improved ventilation and the covering of windows.

• For issues of extreme cold, you can provide appropriate protective clothing and provide suitable rest breaks in an environment with a more normal temperature level.

Workstations

These should provide lighting and ventilation to a comfortable level. It is also essential that equipment such as seating is of a standard that provides the necessary support for the lower back, to ensure that employees do not suffer lumbar problems as a result of lengthy periods utilising them. Working on the computer for long hours without break is one of the major causes for aches pains and finally injuries for many workers in the cubicles. Read some here good tips on Guidelines on Computer Workstation – Computer Ergonomics.

Other tips:

• Use plants and greenery around your workspace to naturally cleanse the air.

• Stretch and flex your feet and hands often. Look away from the computer for some time at a distant place to soothe eye strain. Use anti-glares screens for your monitor.

• If possible conduct ‘walking meetings’ this is possible with one or two people at the most not more. Just go out for a walk with a colleague if you can discuss some project plans without the use of writing boards or presentations.

• Take regular quick breaks to keep up on your productivity and avoid burn-outs.

Furthermore the room should be of a size that it is suitable for the number of people occupying it on a regular basis, so that there are no issues of overcrowding.

If you travel often it is a good idea to keep aside at least two suits that you would not use for your daily office wear. When you know it is time to travel on a short notice, deciding what to pack should be the least of your worries (easier said than practiced though!). Pack light, travel light and pack an extra backpack – just in case you buy something else later on and ensuring you can carry it along with you if needed.

Eating Well

A heavy or unhealthy meal often lowers your alertness and makes you feel drowsy, something which you would rather avoid since you would rather want to make your travel a pleasure than a drag. What foods make you feel lighter yet full? Focus on those, fruits and healthy smoothies often are the make-u-feel-good snacks. While travelling you can make healthy choices now since most airports have salad bars and healthy eating joints.

Save Time

You’d already be doing so but make sure you check in ‘digitally’ before you get to the airport. Inform your pick-up service or friend the right time of flight so they can get to there before time. You can avail the messaging services of the airlines to inform you via phone or email on any delays on your flight.

Relax – You’ll get to Work when you get there

Almost 90 percent of business travelers are on their laptops or phones at the airports, buses or taxis, trying to ‘get work done’. It’s OK to be away for few hours and you’ll eventually be working when you get there! So why not listen to your favorite music, read a nice book that you’ve always wanted to read but never got to due to your always busy schedule, or just look around and make new friends! Making business travel a continuous work stream often results in burn-out.

Exercise Walk Around

Exercise and deep breathing are instant stress busters. Don’t be shy to stretch around and practice deep breathing while waiting for the flight or in-flight. It is gets your nerves calmed and mind relaxed it’s more than worth it!

What other tips would you like to share with us?

And here is a nice infographic highlighting the best airports for business travelers in the US;

Via: Online MBA News

The unending pursuit of quality, of perfection, is the single most important action any individual or organization can take to resolve problems and achieve goals. – Subir Chowdhury , in his new book THE POWER OF LEO.

How much you put emphasis on quality in whatever you do? On a scale of 1 to 10 what’s your current score on quality?

I’m sure your answer would not be anything less than 9.

Now honestly, how is it being implemented in the work you do today? Not an easy answer if we really have to answer that in true honesty. The point is not to revel under the false elation that I deliver a perfect 10 on quality. That’s more of  false bragging than a reality – the point is to efficiently continue on the pursuit to offer best quality of work in whatever you do, you might not be perfect but tending toward perfection always gets you there. That’s where this book offers an awesome inspiration, and not just about quality –“it offers a template for intelligent, organized and data-based decision making in any circumstances”.

The book,  THE POWER OF LEO: The Revolutionary Process for Achieving Extraordinary Results, aims to achieve these goals:

• Offering a powerful new management approach that can help you achieve quality at all levels of an organization.

• Informing readers that when you implement LEO, you work toward making your product better and more cost-efficient.

• How careful, intelligent listening is a crucial step on the road to organizational success. Listen hard and listen well to your customers.

And it does very well in getting these essential points across with successful case studies examples making it more evident that LEO can be easily embraced by everyone within an organization. The results are what everyone aspires for – improvement in your operations, products and bottom line.

With the basic aim of making your operations more optimized for superior results, The Power of LEO is a must read book for all who seek excellence, quality and success in our professions. AND WHO DOESN’T? Chowdhury reveals a groundbreaking concept that enables companies to achieve quality at all levels. It is not conceptual but a proven technique that Subir has seen being applied at organizations of every size and variety and you’ll see how easy the ideas can be to implement at your company right now.

As Subir Chowdhury says:

No company’s operations ever achieve perfection. Total quality is always going to be a goal rather than a reality. And the extra effort toward greater quality at reduced cost will benefit everyone, customers and employees alike.

What is LEO?

LEO’s game-changing approach is comprised of three basic elements:

Listen:  Observe and Understand

To obtain a deep understanding of the issue at hand, assumptions must be put aside and interaction with all relevant parties – including customers, suppliers, and employees – is critical.  “You must get up close and personal and go to the source,” explains Chowdhury. That could be the factory floor, a call center, or a customer’s home.  And listening is not only about asking questions, but about observing – whether that means watching a worker perform a task or a customer use a product.

 Enrich:  Explore and Discover

Once the real nature of the problem is uncovered, the next phase is about searching for the best solution.  Chowdhury advocates a special type of brainstorming session that encourages people to relax and try to come up with numerous ideas, no matter how far-fetched they may seem.  An informal environment where every idea receives a full and respectful hearing is key.  “To get the most out of the Enrich process, you need to embrace change and the idea that what you have now, and what you have done up to this point, simply isn’t good enough,” the author writes.

Optimize:  Improve and Perfect

During this phase, participants review the solutions that have already been proposed.  They look for flaws and find ways to improve the solutions, making them even more effective.  This is a step that some organizations think they can skip.  But it is essential, because good-enough no longer works, contends Chowdhury.  Everyone needs to strive for the highest quality possible.  “If you want to turn out the kind of products or services that will truly delight your customers and attract new ones, you need to keep raising the bar on quality,” he writes.  Once the Opitmize stage is complete, and only then, can the solutions be implemented.

In THE POWER OF LEO, Chowdhury uses detailed case histories of many different types of companies – from an automobile manufacturer, to a hospital, to a candy factory  – to show how the LEO approach has been used in real business situations.

It is one of those books that you would like to reach for every now and then; whenever you need help figuring out how to incorporate better quality and service in your business. And what will amaze you is that each time you’ll get some new inspiration on how to achieve these essential goals that lead a company to success and sustenance.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
SUBIR CHOWDHURY is Chairman and CEO of ASI Consulting Group, LLC, a world leader on LEO and Quality leadership implementation, consulting, and training.  Hailed by The New York Times as a “leading quality expert” and by BusinessWeek as “The Quality Prophet,” Chowdhury is the author of thirteen books, including the international bestsellers The Power of Six Sigma and The Ice Cream Maker.  He has received numerous international awards for his leadership in quality management.  Chowdhury lives with his wife and two children in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan.