In This Issue

News from Joan (right)

How to Get a Great Performance Review (below)

Quotes for the Month

Job Seeking Tips: 26 Interview Tips

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News from Joan!

Last year, a friend did not know her identity had been stolen until she got credit card charges on several cards for things she had not purchased.

When reporting this to the police, the officer who interviewed her recommended enrolling as he had in Life Lock. As soon as we heard about it, we all enrolled in Life Lock.

I have been very pleased with their services and now they have enriched the scope of protection significantly.
I highly recommend checking out their inexpensive and broad service.
http://www.lifelock.com

Upcoming Presentations

October 9, Houston, SHELL WAVE Conference, Career Strategies for Challenging Times

November 14, Houston, Half-Day Seminar for IAAP, on Proving Your Value to Your Boss and other Stakeholders

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Need a Breakout Speaker for Your Local,
Regional, or National Professional Association
or Business Networking Group?
As a professional speaker and former trainer, Joan will give your organization great ideas and practical tips they can implement immediately. View a list of topics and in-depth descriptions.

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What Clients Say about Joan

”Dear Joan,
I know it’s not enough to say thanks for your even-handed guidance and training that allowed me to not get involved at a confrontational level. I was able to address our issue and resolve it with ease; it’s not at all easy dealing with this person but with better tools and copious amounts of patience we worked it out at a very civil level –IT WAS ALMOST FUN!"

George Stover
O&M Manager, Calpine

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THANK YOU FOR YOUR REFERRALS. They are the greatest compliment you could give me.

Schedule a FREE no obligation consultation TODAY! Call 281 293-8864 or email me.

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A spam free newsletter written and published by Joan Bolmer, Executive, Business, Career and Personal Coach. For more helpful ideas visit http://www.bolmer.com

Click here to learn more about Joan’s services!

How to Get a Great Performance Review

In today’s world, just doing what you are told is not enough. If you want to be valued, promoted, or even just keep your job, you must become an active problem solver and participate in the success of your organization.

Managers and supervisors seldom educate employees on how their work relates to the function and profitability of the company or, for that matter, what the cost is if something is not done right. If you don’t measure and report your accomplishments, you are unlikely to get credit for them.

A supervisor of a customer service department for a large, International medical device company told me that one of her employees made nine errors in orders over the last month. These errors cost the company between $500 and $2000 per error. Nine errors out of 1,100 calls a month may not seem like many, until you calculate the total cost.

Those errors directly affect the company’s bottom line! Other customer service reps make an average of three or less errors per month. By comparison, the employee who made more errors is not only failing to add value, she is actually costing the company her salary, plus benefits, plus the cost of the errors. However, if she doesn’t ask, or her supervisor does not tell her, how could she understand why nine errors a month could cost her, her job?

Companies are in business to make money. If they don’t make money, there is no job for you. So, it is in your best interest to understand how your job saves or makes money for the company. The concepts of "value" and "cost" are not always as simple and straightforward as the example above.

Another client wrote in her résumé that she had consulted with the Dean of Notre Dame School of Business to create a case-study project that was completed by the graduate and undergraduate classes. I asked why that was an accomplishment. She said it was because the company was a startup and could not afford to pay for the cutting-edge technology and business-strategy consulting they needed.

Using the startup as a case-study project gave the Dean’s classes a real-life problem to solve and gave her company cutting-edge consulting at no cost.

I asked if the students’ ideas were good and if any of them had been implemented. The answer was a resounding yes! The implementation of student ideas cost the company $75,000 in computer hardware, software, and proprietary data connections. After some discussion, we determined that her initiative produced the following benefits to the company:

• Saved the company an estimated $20,000 in consulting fees.
• Increased revenue by 15% in the first year.
• Reduced overhead and increased productivity an estimated $86,000 annually.
• Decreased paperwork-turnaround time by 30%, decreased new paperwork by 40%.
• Positioned company to expand by 30% without additional cost.

My client said it was so natural and easy to come up with the idea and follow through on it that she never realized the huge value it produced for the company. If she had not thought to quantify the value of her project, it is doubtful that her bosses would have either.

If you want to have a really great performance review, find out where your job fits into the overall function of the organization. How does what you do affect other departments (positively or negatively)? What problems do you see and what action could you take that would fix them? If you streamlined a process, how would it improve the bottom line? Figure out how to quantify the value of solving a problem or coming up with a better way of doing something.

If you don’t measure it and report it, you are unlikely to get credit for it. Your boss is a busy person and does not know all the extra things you do that are not on your assignment list.

Give your boss a monthly report on your accomplishments (bottom line value to the organization). Read “Write You Own Report Card,” for an excellent reporting format. Also, read “Demonstrating Value to Your Clients and your Boss."

Month by month, you will build a wonderful record of the value you bring to the organization. When it is time for your performance review or to update your résumé, all the data will be there.

We all make mistakes. You simply need to show that the value you bring is much greater than the cost of the mistakes you make.

Quotes for the Month

“When you're prepared, you're more confident. When you have a strategy, you're more comfortable.”
—Fred Couples

"Whatever we plant in our subconscious mind and nourish with repetition and emotion will one day become a reality."
- Earl Nightingale

"Resentment is like taking poison and waiting for the other person to die"
- Malachy McCourt

"So much of what we call management consists in making it difficult for people to work. Management means, in the last analysis, the substitution of thought for brawn and muscle, of knowledge for folklore and superstition, and of cooperation for force.”
-Peter Drucker American Management Expert 1909 – 2005

Job Seeking Tips: : 26 Tips for a Successful Interview

Job interviews in many organizations are getting more and more sophisticated these days. Single interviewers, interview panels, multiple interviews, the demonstration of a skill or ability, a hostile interview, case studies, psychological tests, role plays, and challenges to one's quick intelligence and street smarts are often part of the package. While it's impossible to anticipate everything you may encounter, these tips will help you successfully negotiate the interview process.

1. Prepare and Over-Prepare
Why over-prepare? It goes like this: Plan your strategy by preparing your answers for the possible interview questions you may be asked--and then practice, practice, practice. Role-play and repeat your best responses until they are completely natural, until they simply roll off your tongue with the spontaneity that comes with successive repetition.

2. Be Particularly Clear on What You Know and What You Want to Achieve
Most interviews are resume-based, so have the facts of your stated
objective, relevant experience, education, etc. thoroughly memorized and mentally supported. As to your job objective, be clear on what you want, as well as what you don't want. There is little room in the job market for the applicant who is willing to take anything, as he or she will usually get nothing.

3. Make Sure Your Responses Match Your Claims
If, for example, you have taken extra course work to qualify for a
particular position, have a license, have accomplished specific performance achievements, or have earned a special certification, tie it into your narrative or use your presentation binder, e.g., 'When I took my course work for my CPA, I learned that....” More…

If you want to power up your resume, job search and interview skills, give me a call at 281-293-8864 or email me at joan@bolmer.com for a free consultation.

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How to Write a Small Business Employee Handbook

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