I Want to Change the World

In a recent LinkedIn article “10 Cherished Beliefs of Highly Successful People,” Read Here the tenth belief is “They believe they can change a small slice of the world – and will.”

Entirely too many people have decided they cannot make a difference. They think “What could I possibly do to change the world? I’m only one person.” Steve Jobs said, “The ones who are crazy enough to think that they can change the world are the ones who do.” So be crazy; believe you can change the world.

Whoever decided that in order to change the world you had to come up with the solution to world hunger or create everlasting world peace? Why can’t changing the world be as simple as volunteering at your local soup kitchen once a week, or becoming a big brother or big sister for Big Brothers Big Sisters of America? Heck, why can’t changing the world be helping with the fight for equal pay for women, or solving a reoccurring problem in your office?

Perhaps these suggestions are not as glamorous as solving world hunger, but we cannot all be Norman Borlaug. We can all make a difference though. Gandhi said, “Be the change you want to see in the world.” Start there. Simply think about what you want to change in the world and what you can change in your daily life to help start that change.

At this point you may be wondering what on earth changing the world has to do with business or talent solutions. Change is constant. It is continuously happening all around us. If you are not the one influencing change in your company, community, country, world, who is? Someone is, there are people changing the world right now while you’re reading this. Just ask yourself, why not you?

Connor | Caitlin would love to discuss changes with you and your company’s talent changing the world. Contact us at info@connorcaitlin.com.

Happiness is the Ultimate Key to Success

“Success is not the key to happiness. Happiness is the key to success. If you love what you are doing, you will be successful.” – Albert Schweitzer

If you want successful employees, you need happy employees. This begs the question, how do you get happy employees?

Hiring people who really want to work for your company is key to employee happiness. By creating a friendly work environment and being great at what you do, your company will attract excellent candidates. 

The best thing to do is simply open the dialogue with employees. If you do not really know what your employees need to be happy,

you cannot provide it. Every workplace is different and every employee is different, but having a common understanding of employees in your workplace will allow you to cater to them, which will create success. Additionally, simply making sure that your employees know that their happiness is important to you will contribute to higher employee morale and better company culture.

There are a lot of great articles about research done by Shawn Achor on happiness contributing to success. A great place to start making employee happiness a priority is checking out this research and sharing it with your employees.

Please contact Connor | Caitlin to talk about the happiness and success of your business.

www.connorcaitlin.com  

Bossiness, Leadership, Compassion, Strength: What does the workforce want from women?

So you’re a woman in business and you want to be a leader, but what does that really mean for your behavior? This is a question women have been asking for decades, and the latest research may be able to help answer it.

According to new psychology research, strength and "niceness" account for 90 percent of our opinion of a person. Women have been told that in the workplace these two personality attributes are opposites, but that is not the case.

Research, done by Jack Zeneger and Joseph Folkman, shows the chance of a person who is strongly disliked being considered a good leader is 1 in 2,000. This tells us if you are not perceived as a nice person initially, it will be more difficult for you to demonstrate if you have skills and strength.

The majority of leaders begin with showing strength which projects that they are dominant and overbearing, therefore untrustworthy. However, the best way to become a good and trusted leader is to begin with warmth. Warmth creates a clear path to influence. Zig Ziglar may have said it best when he said, “People don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care.”

Even with all the new research and more answers for women in the workplace, there is no hard and fast solution to finding a balance between compassion and strength. Thanks to the abundance of accessible research, women today can be more prepared and better equipped to handle all that the world of business can throw at them. The most important thing to realize is that every work environment is different and it is important to always remain true to you.


If you have any questions about how your business can help the women in your workplace succeed, or if you personally have any questions, please contact Connor|Caitlin.



www.connorcaitlin.com

The After-Graduation Black Hole

Congratulations Class of 2015!

Now that you've hit the major milestone of graduating from college, it’s time to enter the working world.  Some of you may already have job offers, and some may still be discovering themselves, but we can all benefit from job/career advice. 

Business professionals have long since stated the importance of networking, and that is still a large part to the success of many careers today.  Networking, meeting people from all specialties and industries will open your eyes to opportunities that you never even thought about, or knew existed.  Plus, down the road, you never know when one of those connections you made will come in handy.

 

Here’s a fun one.  As a recent college graduate, learn to let your parents help you find the right position.  Parents always want their kids to succeed, and will do anything in their power to help.  While this may seem like you are reverting back to your childhood, trust me, it will help in the end. They know people that they can trust, and people always love to help others.

Forget about your age.  Present yourself as you want others to see you.  Never say “I know I’m young, but…”  This will only get the interviewers thinking about how young you really are, and if you have what it takes to make it at that company.  Instead, present yourself as a professional.  Leave them wondering how old you really are, because you present yourself as a seasoned professional.  Don’t be intimidated by those who are older and wiser, and learn from their experiences that they are willing to share.

Read articles, google the company you are interviewing for, and meet everyone you can.  You will find your niche.

If you want help discovering your career path, please contact Connor|Caitlin. 

Bringing value to Coatings, not just through paint.

At Connor|Caitlin, we work exclusively in the Coatings industry.  With our 40 years of combined experience, we know our market and the major players.  However, we like to stay knowledgeable of the history of some of the top coatings companies.  Today I’m going to give a brief overview of The Valspar Corporation, to give an idea of why we value companies such as them. 

The Valspar Corporation is the sixth largest international paint and coating company in the world, currently based in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Valspar stocks customers in over 100 countries with an extensive range of high quality coatings and paint products.  Valspar’s motto is, “If it matters, we’re on it”, what an ideal way to grab the attention of customers and investors.

Valspar is associated with many other brands, such as: Cabot, Guardsman, House of Kolor, De Beer, Inver, Huarun, Wattyl, Solver, PlastiKote, and more. With their wide range of investors, Valspar showcases integrity and stewardship. Beyond all, the most imperative ambition for Valspar is to maintain an accident-free work setting in order for their employees to stay safe.

Valspar’s leadership, commitment, and investment aspects ensure their potential customers nothing but success and high quality. This company explains how they are committed to creating a long-term relationship with customers, employees, and suppliers. As long as it’s important to you, it’s important to Valspar.

Companies like Valspar are what make our industry shine.  If you are a top company looking for top talent, or talent looking for the top companies, please contact a practice leader at Connor|Caitlin.

Facts courtesy of http://www.valspar.com 

Economic Recovery; Fact or Fiction?

Lately we have been talking about the strengths of top talent.  However, a large influencing factor that determines if top talent goes anywhere is the dark shadow.  The crow on our shoulder. The all-encompassing; state of the economy. 

The economic state is the catalyst that drives talent acquisition.  HR managers across every discipline have a unique view on employment trends. Since they hire, fire, measure engagement and perform other tasks that measure the health of the labor force, they know when there are signs of recovery in the economy.

The first indication of economic health is lowering unemployment rates.  Unemployment is at its lowest level since 2008, around 5.7%.  More people found work in 2014 than in any of the past 15 years.

A second indication of a healthy economy is; job creation is strong. There are around 5 million job openings currently.

The third sign is; in many industries, people are quitting.  While this may seem counter-intuitive, this means that workers are confident there are better opportunities available.

However, there is an important element missing.  Higher wages.  Rising wages have not kept pace with other economic and employment gains.  

All of these add up to the determination that HR managers need to return to people management practices.  Aggressively recruiting new talent, retaining best employees, and investing in our workforce will be crucial.  This is a talent driven market.

If you need help finding that top talent, contact Connor|Caitlin.

The 6 Not So Technical Needs, of Technical People

Leading people is a challenge in itself.  The needs and motivators vary from group to group; marketing people are motivated by a completely different set of values than accounting personnel. 

Trying to understand the motivators or needs of the various groups can be overwhelming at times, categorizing into one big pot is not anymore the solution than throwing your hands up. 

While much of what motivates an individual is within the individual, as leaders its important to understand the needs of technical professionals as you map your people strategy to get the most out of your people.

Autonomy:  To work without being micromanaged is part of the reason that technical professionals choose there given field.  The more you can offer them the freedom to accomplish the task with autonomy the more satisfaction they will find.  Of course, this is often easier said than done but even in small doses the positive mojo the technical professional will get from autonomy will pay off in spades.

Achievement:  While everyone wants to feel a sense of accomplishment at the end of the day, the techie is even more motived by a sense of ‘done’ at some point.  An on-going project with no real end point will drive these folks crazy and serve as a major de-motivator at some point.  A great way to overcome this is setting milestone achievements that can be measured and tracked; this allows achievement to be real and validated for these folks.

Keeping Current:  Techies take great pride in their ability to stay on top of the latest whiz-bang process or advancement in their field.  Allowing them to keep current on their trade will not only add to their happiness at work but more times than not will help the organization get better. 

Professional Identification: While technical people enjoy their credentials more than most, they find meaning in their professional identification and association with the industry. This can be capitalized upon greatly by allowing them to actively participate within the industry events, conferences or learning and networking opportunities.

Participation in Mission and Goals:  This is great because while some folks like to hide in the weeds of the company mission, techies love to have a line of sight form their role and responsibilities to the company mission.  It is important to see their impact on the company mission. 

Collegial Support and Sharing:  Beyond water-cooler chat and company softball teams these individuals like to feel part of a bigger community.   Again, this is a great opportunity for companies and leaders to bring out the best in their people by developing and recruiting focus groups, crowdsourcing and group think.

In the end, technical professionals want to be included and actively participate in the company mission.  Developing an organization that meet these needs will fast track your group into bringing out the best in your technical workforce.

If you are building a world-class technical team, and need some help.  Contact one of the practice leaders at Connor|Caitlin.

Do I care how you feel?...I BETTER!!!

As our economy rebounds and we move forward with the recession further and further in the rear view, great companies are looking to gain a competitive edge in talent and some are winning. In fact, top companies are understanding through analytics what HR professionals have known for years... leaders that know themselves and others is one of the only true competitive distinctions left.

A key element to this paradigm shift is wrapped up in the Social and Emotional Intelligence Quotient (SEIQ) scores of these leaders. In other words, knowing how we communicate with others, what messages we send beyond words, and what is heard by others gives the great ones (leaders that is) the mojo to deliver great results through their people.  This is not a check the box skill, such as once you understand how to raise capital you can move on to doing it. SEIQ is an on-going growth process that takes time and effort to develop and sharpen.  Companies are depending more and more on data to score and rate these skills before they hire.  They are spending the time and energy to make sure that candidates 'walk the walk' and its not all lip service.

The SEIQ looks at four major categories:

• Self Awareness  
• Self Management
• Other Awareness
• Relationship Management

What is great about the SEIQ, unlike your traditional IQ, is that you can fine tune these skills but you must have the self awareness and discipline to do it.  Companies -excuse me- great companies are building behavioral based interviews around these items and selecting folks that manage accordingly. How you get the results is just as important as what those results are.  More and more, a good Social and Emotional Intelligence score is becoming the table stakes for great companies... How we manage matters! 

To learn more about SEIQ as a difference maker whether for yourself, your team or your company, contact Connor|Caitlin Talent Solutions.