Pam Scott’s expertise in communication and leadership skills
will be made available to you for FREE! With our Articles page, Pam will be bringing
you her new and exciting take on issues surrounding communication and
leadership and how these ideas relate to engineers. If there’s a topic you’d
like for Pam to touch on, please send us an e-mail .
LinkedIn is basically a database. Thus, it is important for you to fill
out your profile completely, so the database can find you when someone
does a search. Here is a checklist to help you complete your profile.
If you are just getting started on your profile or have very little
done, I suggest doing a little each day rather than trying to complete
your profile in one session. Then UPDATE your STATUS once a week. This
lets people know that you are still alive and kicking. That sends a
positive message.
Searching on LinkedIn is much like searching any database, since that is what LI essentially is. This document shows the basic search, plus the many categories you can use with advanced search. The search function is in the top right corner of your LI screen.
Minneapolis/St. Paul Business Journal
July 17, 2009, by Gwen Martin
In the ‘New Normal,' look ahead, not back, to find opportunities
The business landscape as we knew it is gone and all of us have been affected at some level. Many industries are remaking themselves or disappearing entirely.
Some experts claim it's not a recession we're in but, rather, an economic "compression" - the painful process of reconciling an economy built on perceived value with its actual value.
The job market has changed drastically the past few months,
and unfortunately not for the better if you are in the market for a new
position. Aside from job boards and networking, recruiters can be a good resource
to use in your search. However, there are many misconceptions of the recruiting
industry and how the process works. Below are some tips I can share that will
help you in working with a recruiter.
"Only 5% of people set goals, and that 5% achieves more than
the other 95% combined." That was on a sign at our fitness facility. That
communicates a pretty strong message. And while it may sound crazy, it's true.
Editor's
note: We asked our readers for their definition of leadership. Bill Miller sent
this article to us. I think you will find it thought-provoking. Thanks,
Bill.--Pam
By
Bill Miller, Greenhorne
& O'Mara
I
think my favorite definition of a leader is a person that can take a group of
people to a place that none of them could have ever gotten to alone.
Dave Hosokawa, former chief executive of the parent
company of Monster.com, advised: If your customers and employees really
understand what you are all about, you will succeed. You help your customers
and employees do that by crafting and repeatedly telling your company story.
You cannot NOT communicate.
Communication happens all the time, whether you like it or not. The question
for leaders in professional services firms is: Do you want to manage
communication or do you want it to manage you?
XL Insurance, a commercial
insurance firm, found that communication was the No. 1 reason for liability
claims among architectural and engineering firms. The company studied 24,000
closed claims that paid out more than $1 billion. Of those claims, 80% were
non-technical. Twenty-seven percent were directly tied to communication issues.
Clear communication consistently
ranks as a priority for any organization to be successful. We expect clear,
concise communications with our fellow workers.
Instead, we should expect
misunderstanding. It happens all the time.
