Archive for February, 2019

How to Put Forward Your Best Self as You Get Older

Posted February 23, 2019 By GuestSpot

As you master your field over time, you can feel something like an identity crisis coming. What do you do next? Plenty of possibilities and opportunities are perfect for a veteran in the industry to take on. You can put forward your best self as you get older by giving speeches, growing your confidence, and embracing your role as a veteran in the workplace.

Begin Giving Professional Speaking Classes

As you get older, your insights become valued and respected in your field because you have experience. Public speaking is a way to maximize this and earn a side income from sharing what you know with others. Before venturing into giving speeches, take a professional speaking class, even if you feel like you’re already good at giving speeches. Or take an online course for preparing and teaching others. You’re guaranteed to learn something new that helps you give inspiring speeches. Being a good public speaker provides many great benefits, including career advancement, new social connections, increased confidence and personal satisfaction.

Look Your Sharpest to Establish Confidence

Appearance isn’t a marginal issue; you need to look the part if you’re going to play it on the professional stage. If your skin is starting to sag or your face isn’t looking quite as energetic as you’d prefer it, there are plenty of options for treating this situation. Feeling satisfied with your personal appearance helps you feel confident. Confidence is important in the professional world because it leads to accomplishing more, advancing your career and communicating more effectively. Even if you already have great achievements in your field, there is always more to reach for, and confidence helps push you.

Step into Your Role as Veteran of Your Field

It’s time to share the insights that you’ve gained throughout your career. Your work experience has helped you develop soft skills. You may have become better at teamwork and time management through experience. And you can share the tips and tricks you’ve discovered with those younger than you. Your expert guidance can help the team perform better and generate greater results.

Mentorship not only benefits the mentee, but it benefits the mentor, too. You may decide to closely mentor someone whom you see potential in, which can be a fulfilling, rewarding experience. Proven experts also have additional opportunities available to them if they’re interested in climbing up the ladder. You could even start your own business if that has been a dream of yours.

Getting older comes with advantages. Focus on the benefits of age and experience so that you can put forward your best self. Your industry record makes you a respected veteran in your field, and your growth isn’t finished yet. Push yourself to greater heights by developing public speaking skills, nurturing confidence and sharing your insights with others.

Filed in Tips & Hints

What Do Employee Assessments Really Reveal?

Posted February 12, 2019 By GuestSpot

Hiring new employees is an important task for any business. You want people who will come in with the necessary skills to function right away and a personality that works with the culture of the workplace. Pre-employment assessments are an essential tool to make sure that the right person gets the job.

Pre-Employment Assessments

The number and type of assessments used in the hiring process will depend on the business. At a basic level, a candidate’s resume and interview may be enough to make an informed decision. SmartRecruiters explains, “in a skill-based business, such as a technology company, skill tests may be used to determine if a potential employee’s skills are at the level needed to work in the business.” A variation on this is an intentional trial period, where the employee does the job under observation for a defined period of time.
Another area around which pre-employment assessments are used is risk. You want to maintain an environment where employees feel safe and can be responsible and productive. Common risk assessments include criminal background checks, mandatory drug testing, credit checks and physical exams.

Red Flags

As you work through the hiring process, you want to keep your eyes open for potential problems. These red flags may mean that a candidate is either unqualified or unfit to be in your workplace. A common issue to watch for is out-of-date information on a resume. Most people assume that information that is more than a decade old is usually no longer relevant. If the candidate’s resume lives in the past, it may indicate a person who has not been growing his or her skills. This would also be indicated by a candidate who cannot pass a basic skill test. Another red flag is large gaps in employment. Workopolis explains, “large gaps in employment aren’t always a bad situation, sometimes people have to stop working to care for an ailing relative or other circumstantial reason. That being said, it’s important to note those gaps and ask about them.” Other resume red flags might be references that cannot be reached or long gaps in employment history.
A more serious concern would be an issue with attitude or their ability to work with others. The Hire Talent explains, “behavioral aptitude assessments can reveal candidate traits that may be troublesome or cause for further investigation before hiring.” People with overly strong personalities or who won’t work well with others isn’t someone you want on your team or in your company.

Checking a potential employee’s criminal record is also a good idea as this can give you a little bit of information on their past that they may not be willing to share immediately. Failing a drug test is also a reason for strong concern. Sometimes there can be an innocent explanation, such as prescribed medication, but you will still want to proceed with respect and honest fact-finding. This also means you must explore the newer legal issues around some use of drugs in private versus the workplace. 

In the End


You want the best people representing your business. Pre-employment assessments will help you find them. Employees will the skills and personality you need will help your business succeed.

To improve the cohesiveness of your business, and to improve your workplace culture, make sure to get in contact with us to schedule a group workshop. Group workshops are a great way for everyone to get on the same page and work together.

Filed in 2018 Guest Series, Resources

Adventures Of The Heart, Love Beyond The Binary

Posted February 11, 2019 By Frank Strona

Love

A simple word with so many meanings and so much weight as Valentine’s Day looms on the horizon.

 from Adventures of the Heart

Love and rules

At this time of the year – we often see a commercial push to “define” how and what makes up relationships. If we leave it up to “Hallmark Channel” sensibilities, that would often mean a clear and defined binary coupling between a man and women. Well, guess what folks – it’s 2019 and that is one “standard” that is neither acceptable nor as simple.

As more and more people seek to live out authentic lives in work, play and love, a pendulum shift is in play that redefines who with and how people partner up, some of that redefining includes even the a new exploration of what definition of what a “couple” means, how agreements are formed between those involved and rules of engagements in and out of the relationship.

Love and “couples”

For those fearful of the change, or who demand with such a dedication that borders on zealousness, that relationship is a 2-person dynamic, this expansion of who we partner needs to be met with calm, reserved refraction. Not trying to defend and correct what they believe is wrong. Rather, display and model that what others believe may also be acceptable and that “love” comes in many forms.

Love your way

In Leon Fox’s, Adventures of the Heart found in the current issue of The Fight Magazine is a great example and serves as a way to encourage everyone to check personal bias and assumptions at the door before attempting to define how and what makes a relationship work.

 

For the full article visit Leon’s Adventures Of The Heart

 

 

Filed in #MentorSFCA | Tagged: , ,

LGBT Coaches Bring MORE Diversity to All Professions

Posted February 3, 2019 By Frank Strona

Ensuring space for diversity in the representation of Coaches to meet client needs.

Options matter to most Clients

Coaching is about meeting the right person to fill the right need to help inspire and enrich an experience.

Some clients prefer to choose Coaches by content specialty. Other by age, race even gender.

Sometimes clients who come from marginalized and stigmatized communities may opt to work with someone more closely aligned with the “world lens” they share. LGBT persons can often fall into this group as well. Now I don’t mean to say that a non-LGBT professional isn’t capable of working with LGBT clients.

Rather what I propose is that clients may find more comfort in the “sameness”. In fact, it may allow them to reduce any feeling that they have to explain the context externally, before being willing to go internally. Even the most well-intentioned and informed ally to LGBT people has to learn about and experience it somewhere. That often provides a perspective that may or may not reflect a wider view held by those who are LGBT.

The Gay Coaches Alliance, 8th Annual Spring conference, May 2-5,2019

Registration is now open and they are still taking inquiries on participation options. This year’s conference is hosted at Easton Mountain Retreat in Greenwich, NY. The theme this year is “Gay MEN – Everyone’s a Coach: Bringing MORE Coaching to All Professions”.

The hosting organization, The Gay Coaches Alliance clearly see the need for more coaches from the gay and bisexual men’s community, as well as the needs of gay and bisexually, identified men. In fact, they put it out that way on the membership website

“Whether you’re a coach in training, a practicing coach, credentialed coach, or master coach, OR if you happen to be a therapist, psychologist, social worker, spiritual director, minister, or other professional working with coaching…. WE want you to come“.

I have several colleagues and friends who are on this group, including Leonid Frolov one of the two creators of the Flourish As Gay workshop on tour currently and they have always spoken highly of the conference.

For details visit http://gaycoachconference.com/more2019

If you are a Gay or Bisexual Coach, check out the facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/TheGayCoaches/ or visit the Gay Coaches Alliance site for membership details.

Filed in #MentorSFCA, Announcements