Overwhelm: A Career Signifier

Being efficient relies on noting times when you step into and remain overwhelmed and what you do to get out of it. The overall aspect of taking on too much and not having an exit strategy can create a cycle of feeling tracked and overwhelmed.

As you become more skilled and busier in your work the likelihood of becoming overwhelmed and distracted becomes more prevalent. Being overwhelmed is when you have more to do or process than what you perceive you have time for. The challenge with overwhelm is that it costs businesses millions of dollars each year with employees not being productive, efficient and on top of things.

It impacts the work place because employees are not given the specific tools and strategizes to change their attitude and perspective. In this blog I will go into detail about specific techniques I coach clients on that you may find helpful.

There are specific tips I am going to share with you. In additional I have a unique model I have developed that you can apply to any situation to get out of overwhelm. Please email me to get your copy.

Here are some suggestions I recommend. The first is to say no to certain activities and conversations that don’t support your goals. It’s honorable to say no in your life so you can make space for what is most important. In partnership with saying no is always opening to understanding and knowing your limits. As we live longer our body changes and our life energy reserves shifts, which impacts our limits and our capacities. By knowing this you save yourself time and energy. I recommend you take brakes every 1.5 hours or so and take notice of your natural rhythms. Are you more likely to be an early morning person or a late night person? Track your most productive and energetic times and use that time to do the most demanding and meaningful work. I also encourage you to play with how you do tasks by experimenting with your use of time and task management.

Specifically after you know your natural rhythms you can relax into the moment and let your past and future melt away. To reduce and begin to eliminate overwhelm it’s important to look at what is essential in your life and career and do what gives you the most reward and out put. As you choose to release relationships, activities, volunteer projects, clients, career directions, to dos in general that have drained you then you create more energy to dedicate to what is important for you. In previous blogs I have mentioned the 80/20 rule where we receive most of our enjoyment and success from 20% of what we do. By reducing what you choose to take on, remain involved with and focus on you can reduce the amount of work and projects down to a manageable amount that you can work with. From there I suggest you systemize and automate as much as you can of what you have taken on into daily rituals and systems that allow you to create a way to focus on completing things verses remaining on a treadmill of busyness.

And finally the most practical and sometimes the most profound are the items that relate to increasing your health and vitality such as mediating, exercise, eating food that works for you well, getting enough sleep, and spending time alone without stimulus such as TV, computers, conversations and work.

Overwhelm is a state of mind that you can change with your attitude and the actions you take.

Negotiate Your Salary

Negotiating is a skill that completes your professional package. Being able to convey your thoughts to another and generate a successful outcome demonstrates many benefits to an employer. Learn more about the specifics required to be a success.

Once you have your job offer then it’s important to move forward into the phase of negotiating and claiming your compensation packet. I want to remind us that there are many ways how to define your value and build a win/win expectation. In negotiating the first step is to gain career advise from others about the industry standard for your position. You need a realistic and present time value statement for the position you are aiming for. Once this is established you can move forward with exploring your bottom line negotiating points and your career needs.

Negotiating is a conversation of asking for what is needed, listening to what the other person has to offer, and seeing how things can fit for each party. Both people want to feel like they got a good deal and the long end of the stick. In allowing for this it is important to initiate a discussion on behalf of your career goals by taking into account your compensation packet as one venue for establishing value. In this global age there are many aspects to being competitive and beneficial to an employer. One important key is in the value that you bring to them not only in your cost savings in relation to salary but also based on return on investment. As you establish the dollar value of what you bring to the table and the benefit you provide they can more easily pay you what you request. This is accomplished by speaking and demonstrating your past successes and by mentioning your ideas for their business goals. To be engaged in an effective negotiating conversation requires establishing up front the value of what you offer and what they need and confirming that there is a strong match.

Negotiating is a process of dialoguing with another person by selling in what you have to offer and placing a financial dollar amount attached to it. In negotiating it’s important to begin with what your key points are and what you are willing to move on and change and what are your basic bottom line non-negotiable items. By having both in mind you know where you begin and where to end. As you engage with the person you are drawing them into a conversation with you that is rich with needs, requests, and bottom lines. How you negotiate will also demonstrate the type of professional you are and set the tone and foundation for your work. Do it with respect, intention, and partnership. This provides getting your needs met and developing a foundation of colleague to colleague offering.

Negotiation is both a mind-set and a skill. Both of which are career requirements to move you and your goals forward. It is a way to contextualize what you are doing and to interact with another person to produce a successful result. It also takes skill and tact to bring various requests together and to keep the conversation moving forward. At the end of the day, negotiating is about building rapport and generating a working relationship that brings lasting results.

Informational Interviews: providing you with clues to Succeed!

Learn specific career research tools and organize your network to support you in accelerating your ability to move into your next career position.

A tremendous way to find out more in a field is doing an informational interview. This is when you network to find people working at the company, in the industry or with people you want to work with. By asking a series of questions and engaging with them you expand your network of people who know you and increase your capacity to learn about the industry.

One main advantage is that you gather a great deal of information in an organized and efficient manner contributing to your ability to make decisions and save many hours and wasted money. People do informational interviews to learn firsthand about a particular type of work or organization. It also helps to develop contacts which can lead to introductions and access to jobs in the hidden job market.

How do you identify who to contact and how to find them? The best people to contact are individuals who are further ahead on the career path and can operate as a mentor. They have insider information and understand the importance of contributing to others. You may wonder where to find these people. When I coach clients I recommend they start with who they know already. Ask people in person, by phone and by email who they might know in a certain industry, field, or at a company that you want to learn more about. I also suggest you use resources like LikedIn and Facebook to identify people you currently know who may know these people.

An easy way to begin the conversation is by telling the person, that you are in the process of making some decisions about your career and want to learn from them. You are not looking for a job but are in an information gathering process. The outcome is informative in nature moving you closer to your career goals. I find a very effective question to pose is something like “Here is what I have done and what I have accomplished.” What ideas or suggestions might you have for career direction or opportunities that I might want to pursue?”

This process of inquiry is a sure sound way to search for careers or confirm a new career path. Each interview you do provides information that moves you closer to your goal. It is also a tremendous way to expand your network of people who know you, and your accomplishments and your career aspirations. The outcome is an increase of the quality and quantity of people who could assist you.

A few sample questions you might find helpful to ask would be, “What skills or characteristics do you feel contribute to the success in this industry? “What is the most important thing that someone planning to enter this career should know?”

If you would like a more comprehensive list of informational interview questions and a more detailed report please email me below.

Please share with our readers a personal success story you have from an interview you were on recently and any decisions or next steps you took because of it.