Archive for the ‘career development’ Category

Attitude, Aptitude & Skill

December 19, 2010 by Anthony Nicoli

Attitude: Manner, disposition, feeling, or position with regard to a person or thing. Tendency or orientation, especially of the mind.

Aptitude: Capability; ability; innate or acquired capacity for something; talent. Special fitness.

Skill: The ability coming from one’s knowledge, practice and aptitude to do something well. Competent excellence in performance; dexterity.

Many of you are working to better prepare yourselves to secure a new position or replace previous employment. As you do so, remember that your potential employer is constantly asking themselves questions related to the three areas cited above as they consider candidates for their role.

They are wondering:

Does this person possess the attitude required to help me succeed in my role?

Do they have the inherent qualities that will allow them to not only contribute to my organization, but also assume initiative and leadership?

Do they possess the skills needed to execute the role successfully?

While we remain in a time when employment is dear, recall that your task in seeking a new role is to find one that is a good match for what you have to offer. Too often, we believe that we must jump at a job simply because it is available or offered. This is particularly difficult to resist when we have been without employment for some time.

It is fine to accept a role temporarily to secure financial stability. However, do not let this distract you from your true purpose in seeking new employment. That is, to identify a role that better ables you to grow your level of contribution to the organization and community you serve, and thereby, grow your personal compensation, abilities and character.

The task of your potential employer and yourself is to find a good match between the objectives of the role and the person who will hold it. So, as you work to prepare to interact with potential employers, take time, perhaps substantial time, to become conscious of the attitude you hold and communicate, the natural aptitudes, or strengths, you possess, and the areas in which you have become skilled.

There are many techniques that can help you bring these aspects of yourself to mind and prepare to communicate them to potential employers. We can consider these later. For now, the important thing is to recognize that you must understand yourself so well in these areas that you can, with confidence:

1-      Communicate them to a potential employer to help them make an informed choice among candidates; and

2-      Hold them up to what you understand about your potential new organization, role and manager to make your own choice as to whether you want this new role.

Anthony Nicoli

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Categories: Differentiating You, career development, professional development, professional growth

Effective Negotiation Skills

May 21, 2010 by Scott Olsen

How important is your ability to negotiate, your ability to get what you want and/or need from others? My friend’s daughter wanted to play volleyball in college after a successful high school career. She was accepted into Seattle Pacific University for her academics and the volley ball coach welcomed her onto the team, but didn’t offer her a scholarship. My friend suggested that his daughter specifically ask for a scholarship. After a little more prompting and motivation, my friend’s daughter did ask, and she did receive… a half scholarship! A huge value!

In the book, Women Don’t Ask, by Linda Babcock and Sara Laschever, they note that “By neglecting to negotiate her starting salary for her first job, a women may sacrifice over half a million dollars in lost earnings by the end of her career…” Imagine what effective negotiation skills might mean to you in your personal life, professional career and your ability to make a major impact for your company.

I’d love to hear about the biggest negotiated win you’ve achieved and how you did it! Please share in the space below.

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Categories: Differentiating You, Sales Management, Sales Stories, Tactical Selling Skills, career development, negotiation skills

Negotiating for What You Want

July 25, 2008 by Scott Olsen

What you don’t negotiate can cost you.

You’ll never know what you can get unless you negotiate for it. The following story is a reminder to me that “negotiation” is a skill that has to be learned, developed, and thoughtfully put into action to work.

Do you ever wonder how much you are paying for your airline seat compared to what the person paid for the seat next to yours? How about what the person at your athletic club is paying to use the same equipment as you each month? And finally, how about the office space next to your office? Well, one of my career development clients just learned the hard way. She was paying $1300/month for a one person interior space with no windows. She was told that the one person office across the hall with the beautiful windows with the forest view was $1800/month. When she asked if their was any room to negotiate, the response was “no.”  A few months go by and she starts to talk with person who ended up leasing the window space across the hall and learned that he was paying $1300/month. After she got over her frustration that she was paying the same as him without the window…, she asked how he got that rate? He replied he asked the management firm to match another (less desirable) space across town or he would walk. He used the “competition” tactic like a pro and it worked!

How do you negotiate for what you want?

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Categories: Sales Skills, Uncategorized, career development, negotiation skills, professional development, sell, selling

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