You are the Language

November 14, 2012 by Joyce Richman
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You are the language you speak. If you talk about can’t and don’t, you won’t. If you talk about go and do, you will. You are the language you believe. If you focus on limitations, you’ll operate within and be constrained by the assumptions you have about yourself and others. If you presume that you can do no wrong you’ll be insensitive to the negative impact of your best intentions. If you believe there isn’t Continue reading →

Work the Hardest

October 31, 2012 by Joyce Richman
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If you’d like to improve your working life with a job that’s a good match to your skills, abilities, and temperament but the thought of interviewing has you stuck in neutral, work hardest on what you fear most: If you don’t how to respond to open ended questions, get a list of them and get to work on your responses. Get them so grooved that you can’t wait for a chance to answer them, in Continue reading →

The Biggest Struggles

June 27, 2012 by Joyce Richman
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Many of you struggle with your job search because you don’t know the career direction that’s best for you. If you’d like to stop spinning and start mapping, pay attention to your interests and hobbies. Do you love music and hiking? You probably want jobs that enable you to work in harmonious places and open spaces. Do you like acknowledging others and organizing social events? You’re likely to enjoy coordinating projects and activities for the Continue reading →

Travel and Job Seeking

June 20, 2012 by Joyce Richman
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What does job search and foreign travel have in common? Having recently returned from a business trip abroad, I’m not only brimming with fresh perspective and chock full of new learning, I see connections I’d earlier have missed. The learning: Airline personnel, flight cancellations, impatient travelers. When the few are assigned the work of the many and there’s a critical intersection of the few, complicated by a critical interruption of the many, chaos reigns.  The Continue reading →

The Dream

June 13, 2012 by Joyce Richman
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You’re having a struggle. You’re trying to identify the career direction your life should take and despite your best efforts you can’t figure it out. You’ve sought advice from your best friend to your dad’s business partner; you’ve read self-help books, walked in the woods, read the want ads, and nothing’s helped. Then, one night, you have a dream… You’re standing in the great check-out line of life, and you’re handed a clip board and Continue reading →

Selling Yourself Like a House

June 5, 2012 by Joyce Richman
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If you were getting ready to selling your home, and to buy one, instead of leaving a job and looking for onea job, I bet you’d do whatever you could , that was affordable and within reason., to be successful. If you were buying a home, you’d do the same. You’d begin wby doing a ith a full house inspection, eyeballing the interior and exterior of your space to figure out what works and what Continue reading →

School is Starting

May 29, 2012 by Joyce Richman
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There’s something about the sights, smells, and start of fall and the school year that can get the kid in you revved up for what’s to come. You have to repress that urge to run out and buy a new lunch box, backpack and notebooks, because you’d look a little silly, given your age and station in life. If you’re a job seeker, your search can feel more like the first day of school in Continue reading →

New Year Resolutions

March 13, 2012 by Joyce Richman
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Up and at ‘em! It’s a few weeks past the honkin’ and hollerin’ dawn of the new year and I bet you haven’t made out your list of New Year’s Resolutions. Surely there are countless things you resolve to do differently this year; dozens of ways you want to be, think, and do that are new and improved over the not-so-hot ways you did them last year. So, get in gear, pencils sharp, paper ready. Continue reading →

New Year: A Good Time for New Solutions

December 27, 2011 by Joyce Richman
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You’re barreling toward the next year, bent on doing it better, faster, smarter than … what? If you look back over the last several months, certain behavioral issues have already surfaced as leading contenders for top problems. What impact are they currently having on your business and what can you do to course correct before year-end? Visionaries are given a mandate to create a concept that moves the company ahead of the competition. Impulsive visionaries, exploding with new ideas, are Continue reading →

Telling the story a new way: Mother Goose in the workplace

December 20, 2011 by Joyce Richman
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Even the best of friends can drive each other to distraction. Potato, potahto, tomato, tomahto, you get the drill. If friendship can’t transcend petty differences, what are co-workers, in recession rocked, pressure packed, deadline driven organizations to do? If you don’t have the energy to read what business gurus have to say on the subject, and want something a little more soothing, check out some Mother Goose. For example: Jack and Jill ran up the Continue reading →

Be a Problem Solver — Not a Problem Maker

November 29, 2011 by Joyce Richman
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She’s intelligent, talented, and fired. This isn’t the first time and might not be the last unless she gets a handle on what’s not working and what is. What’s working? Plenty. Claire (whose name is fictitious and behavior is real) is independent, self reliant, and self -starting. She thinks fast and talks faster. She’s analytic, organized and a wizard at remembering the details; all of which enable her to nail a problem at 500 paces. Continue reading →

All Talk + No Action = A Wake Up Call

November 15, 2011 by Joyce Richman
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An African American woman had a wake up call she’d like to forget but clearly remembers: Helen was an attorney in the legal department of a Fortune 100 company. She valued her work, her relationships with colleagues and the professional conduct of her company. A year or so ago, the company’s human resources department organized a minority recruitment task force; its purpose to attract people of color to the corporation. They invited Helen to join. Continue reading →

Hearing and Fearing in Today’s Workplace

October 25, 2011 by Joyce Richman
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If the following comments sound familiar, they may be representative of what many people hear or fear, in today’s workplace. If you want a job here, you’ll do more with less. You’ll demonstrate and communicate your worth to and for the organization every day you’re on our payroll. You’ll retain and re-train qualified personnel at no cost to the company. There are more reasons than space to describe why organizations pare their payrolls and tighten Continue reading →

Public Speaking and Remaining True to Yourself

October 11, 2011 by Joyce Richman
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Do you love public speaking as much as public stoning? Do you enjoy giving a presentation as much as getting a root canal? Do you shut down when you’re asked questions, and avoid asking questions when you need information? If so, you’re in some scared but good company. Let’s face it. You don’t have to speak up if you don’t want to. You don’t have to ask for what you believe is rightfully yours. Just Continue reading →

Frustrated at the Crossroads

September 20, 2011 by Joyce Richman
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Frustrated folks are stuck at the crossroads of  Many Possibilities. They’re torn between their parent’s dreams and their own fantasies.The strongest sentiment they express is, “what if I choose the wrong path? I don’t want to commit myself to the wrong future.” With that fear firmly in place, they remain stuck. They prefer the angst of indecision to the requisite of choice. What they are missing is a realization that reasonable people, with benefit of Continue reading →

Some Unsavory Sorts….

September 13, 2011 by Joyce Richman
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Three employees in the workplace. Each one tries our patience and challenges our notions of fair play: The first is a free radical existing in a conservative, hierarchical institution. He’s as difficult as he is brilliant, appealing, and maddening. He has a small but adoring claque of supporters who follow his lead and go wherever he takes them. He thrives on their adoration and holds them close; his inner circle, his chosen few. All would Continue reading →

Take a Moment for….

August 23, 2011 by Joyce Richman
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She said she’s getting out of the business. “Why in the world would you do that? You’re more successful than you’ve ever been. You told me that you love your work and the feeling you have when helping people get what they want. It’s working! Why leave now?” She said that business is booming and she has to drive customers away with a stick. She’s making lots of money and the challenges keep coming.  The Continue reading →

The Straw that Broke…

August 9, 2011 by Joyce Richman
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I’m getting used to calls about workplace stress. What’s gotten my attention lately are all the calls about workplace abuse. American business and industry are known for having more workplace stress, abuse, and violence than our counterparts in other developed nations. The simple explanation is that we are more competitive, entrepreneurial, and bottom line. We seem to like that. Not that we are violent,  but that we are competitive. Stress is the norm. Add to that Continue reading →

More than Techniques

August 2, 2011 by Joyce Richman
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I’ve written posts dedicated to the trials and tribulations of introverted employees who recognize their own potential while realizing that others don’t. I have described described techniques that the more quiet among us can use should they wish to become more visible, viable, and recognized members of the work community. I’ve received some feedback: Many people don’t like “techniques”. They have an aversion to behaving in ways that are contrary to how they see themselves. Continue reading →

Seeing all the Pieces of the Forest

July 26, 2011 by Joyce Richman
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(If your name is Dani and this story reads like a story you’ve lived, It’s just a coincidence.) Dani had that All American Girl look, the one the Ivory Soap commercials used to feature; scrubbed, fresh-faced, healthy, outdoor gals who exuded intelligence along with good taste in facial cleansing products. She was having trouble with her career, feeling a little stuck, and not knowing what to do about it. Dani had gone to a college Continue reading →