Four phrases to avoid at work if you want to be trusted

Four phrases to avoid at work if you want to be trustedFour phrases to avoid at work if you want to be trustedAfriend of mine was recently telling me about her new job. I like it, except my boss is hard to read, she said. I wish shed just come out and say what she thinks Instead, her boss useswishy-washy expressions like, Hopefully youre okaywith this? and, I might possibly have a suggestion for you.Asorganizations become flatter, communicating well in every direction is gettingmora important. But managers and leaders are often worried about sounding too controlling, so they soften what they say. Their team members, taking their cue, bury their own ideas under hedging expressions that muddle their meaning. Before long, everyone just winds up sounding less clear,confident, andauthoritativethan they actually feel.In order to make sure you sound like you know what youre talking about, cut these common words and phrases from your vocabulary.RelatedThis Three-Word Phrase Is Subtly Undermi ning Your Authority1. Im bedrngnis sure, butFor starters, its okay not to be sure about something. After all, false confidence is often just as bad as open ignorance. But saying Im not sure when you reallydohave a decent grasp on the matter only undercuts your cause.When your employee, for instance, says, Im not quite sure, but I should have the report done by Friday, youre left to wonder whetherthat means youll actually have to wait until the following week, or that theyre just being modest. There are better ways to communicate tentativeness in cases like this Im waiting on a few moredata points from our finance team, so as long asthosecome through tomorrow, the report will be ready by Friday.Nowyour employee sounds like she knows what shes talking about.Similar qualifiers to avoid includeonly a thought, just my opinion, hard to say, and this might be a silly question. None of these humbleidioms help you make a compelling case about a complicated topic, or let you underscore what y oudoknow in a situation where there are unknowns. The goalisnt to minimize uncertainty or downplay risks. Its to be taken seriously as someone who cannavigate those gray-area experiences with well-founded confidence.RelatedSix Words And Phrases That Make Everyone Hate Working With You2. Sort of or Kind ofWhen someone says, I sort of think or I kind of suspect, its clear they either dont want to come out and speak the truth or elsedont really know their own mind.Maybe asales manager says something like this I kindof think we should approach that client againits been a long time since weve heard from them. What do you think? Is she uncertain about going forward and genuinely wants your opinion, or is she just trying to give direction by softening her statement?Or perhapsyour boss says, I sort of liked the work you turned in last week. Perhaps shes suggesting your work wasnt up to snuff, or perhaps shes just giving you a compliment and softening her language. It might seem like an unim portant difference, but in reality it leaves you not knowing how to respond Do you keep doing what youve been doing, ordo you ask for feedback on how to do better work next time?Not only do these phrases create a lack of clarity for team members, they also make team leaders who use them sound less confident and transparent than they should.3. Maybe, Possibly, and PotentiallyMaybe, possibly, probably, basically, largely, and hopefully are all words that smack of indecision. If a manager says to a staff member, Hopefully youll be okaywith this change, his listener might wonder whether she actually has leeway to challenge it.Many qualifiers like these have a similar effect. An employeetells asupervisor, The project is largely completeinstead of actually saying when itwillbe done or why its not quite there yet. AnIT manager says to an internal client, Its basically a software problem, but possibly we can fix it pretty soon ourselves. Is this good news or bad news? Who knows None of thes e phrases instill much confidence that the speaker has a handle on the situation.4. Using the past tense when you mean the presentHow many times have you been in a meeting and heard a colleague say,I thought I should mention that. . . or, I was thinking we should . . . ? It sounds like the person talking no longer quite believes in whatever idea theyreputtingforward. Compare those past tense expressions to phrases like Iwant to mention . . . and I think we should . . . and the difference is clear.Similarly, whenyou say, I just wanted to point outthat our project is well under way, the first part of the statement hedges the rest of the sentence that comes after it, which is actually positive. Its as though you reallydidhave something to say, then thought better of it, but finally decidedhesitantlyto put it out there anyway. Youve just created confusion, rather than announcing clearly and confidently that your project is going just fine.If you want to sound like a capable speaker who knows what youre talking about, dont water down your message. Avoid these four patterns and expressions. They dont make you sound more approachablethey justmake you sound uncertain, even when you arent.Everyone has one zupflmmel a bad habit you need to shake at work. Make it your goal to start fixing it this week. Whats your first step? Let us know and find support at The Climb.This article originallyappeared on Fast Company.

Study The blue lights from our screens can blind us

Study The blue lights from ur screens can blind usStudy The blue lights from our screens can blind usAmericans spend up to 11 hours a day in front of a digital screen, but our commitment to our phones and laptops is having unwanted effects on our eyes, a new study from peer-reviewed journal Scientific Reports found.Researchers at theUniversity of Toledoin Ohio foundthat our blue-tinted screens are wrecking our eyes and accelerating our risk of blindness.Our digital screens are steadily blinding usThe researchers found that prolonged exposure to the 445-nanometer shortwave we see on our electronic devices called blue light can cause permanent damage to our eyes. The blue light triggers the creation of poisonous chemical moleculesin our eyes photoreceptor cells.Its toxic. If you shine blue light on retinal, the retinal kills photoreceptor cells, Kasun Ratnayake, one of the studys authors, said.Photoreceptor cells do not regenerate in the eye. When theyre dead, theyre dead for good. Whe n photoreceptor cells get killed, it can increase our risk of age-related macular degeneration, an incurable eye disease.Blue light can not only blind you, it can also keep you up at night. Blue light disrupts our sleep schedules by convincing our brains it is morning when it is night. As you watch your televisions, phones and laptop screens,these unwanted side effects are a reminder to give yourself breaks to look away.

Grammar rules you were taught at school that are wrong

Grammar rules you were taught at school that are wrongGrammar rules you were taught at school that are wrongDo you remember being taught you should never abflug your sentences with And or But?What if I told you that your teachers were wrong and there are lots of other so-called grammar rules that weve probably been getting wrong in our English classrooms for years?How did grammar rules come about?To understand why weve been getting it wrong, we need to know a little about the history of grammar teaching.Grammar is how we organize our sentences in order to communicate meaning to others.Those who say there is one correct way to organize a sentence are called prescriptivists. Prescriptivist grammarians prescribe how sentences must be structured.Prescriptivists had their day in the sun in the 18th century. As books became more accessible to the everyday person, prescriptivists wrote the first grammar books to tell everyone how they must write.These self-appointed guardians of the languag e just made up grammar rules for English, and put them in books that they sold. It was a way of ensuring that literacy stayed out of reach of the working classes.They took their newly concocted rules from Latin. This was, presumably, to keep literate English out of reach of anyone who wasnt rich or posh enough to attend a grammar school, which was a school where you were taught Latin.And yes, that is the origin of todays grammar schools.The other camp of grammarians are the descriptivists. They write grammar guides that describe how English is used by different people and for different purposes. They recognize that language isnt static, and it isnt one-size-fits-all.1. You cant start a sentence with a conjunctionLets start with the grammatical sin I have already committed in this article. You cant start a sentence with a conjunction.Obviously you can, because I did. And I expect I will do it again before the end of this article. There, I knew I wouldThose who say it is always incorr ect to start a sentence with a conjunction, like and or but, sit in the prescriptivist camp.However, according to the descriptivists, at this point in our linguistic historyit is fine to start a sentence with a conjunction in an op-ed article like this, or in a novel or a poem.It is less acceptable to start a sentence with a conjunction in an academic journal article, or in an essay for my sons high school economics teacher, as it turns out. But times are changing.2. You cant end a sentence with a prepositionWell, in Latin you cant. In English you can, and we do all the time.Admittedly a lot of the younger generation dont even know what a preposition is, so this rule is already obsolete. But lets have a look at it anyway, for old times sake.According to this rule, it is wrong to say Who did you go to the movies with?Instead, the prescriptivists would have me say With whom did you go to the movies?Im saving that structure for when Im making polite chat with the queen on my next visit to the palace.Thats not a sarcastic comment, just a fanciful one. Im glad I know how to structure my sentences for different audiences. It is a powerful tool. It means I usually feel comfortable in whatever social circumstances I find myself in, and I can change my writing style according to purpose and audience.That is why we should teach grammar in schools. We need to give our children a full repertoire of language so that they can make grammatical choices that will allow them to speak and write for a wide range of audiences.3. Put a comma when you need to take a breathIts a novel idea, synchronizing your writing with your breathing, but the two have nothing to do with one another and if this is the instruction we give our children, it is little wonder commas are so poorly used.Punctuation is a minefield and I dont want to risk blowing up the internet. So here is a basic description of what commas do, and read this for a more comprehensive guide.Commas provide demarcation between like grammatical structures. When adjectives, nouns, phrases or clauses are butting up against each other in a sentence, we separate them with a comma. Thats why I put commas between the three nouns and the two clauses in that last sentence.Commas also provide demarcation for stimmts, phrases or clauses that are embedded in a sentence for effect. The sentence would still be a sentence even if we took those words away. See, for example, the use of commas in this sentence.4. To make your writing more descriptive, use more adjectivesAmerican writer Mark Twain had it right.When you catch an adjective, kill it. No, I dont mean utterly, but kill most of them then the rest will be valuable.If you want your writing to be more descriptive, play with your sentence structure.Consider this sentence from Liz Lofthouses beautiful childrens book Ziba Came on a Boat. It comes at a key turning point in the book, the story of a refugees escape.Clutching her mothers hand, Ziba ran on and on, through the night, far away from the madness until there was only darkness and quiet.A beautifully descriptive sentence, and not an adjective in sight.5. Adverbs are the words that end in lyLots of adverbs end in ly, but lots dont.Adverbs give more information about verbs. They tell us when, where, how and why the verb happened. So that means words like tomorrow, there and deep can be adverbs.I say they can be adverbs because, actually, a word is just a word. It becomes an adverb, or a noun, or an adjective, or a verb when it is doing that job in a sentence.Deep into the night, and the word deep is an adverb. Down a deep, dark hole and it is an adjective. When I dive into the deep, it is doing the work of a noun.Time to take those word lists of adjectives, verbs and nouns off the classroom walls.Time, also, to ditch those old Englishmen who wrote a grammar for their times, not ours.If you want to understand what our language can do and how to use it well, read widely, think deeply and list en carefully. And remember, neither time nor language stands still for any of us.Misty Adoniou, Associate Professor in Language, Literacy and TESL, University of CanberraThis article was originally published on The Conversation. Read the original article.

Customize this Outstanding Payroll Resume 10 Sample

Customize this Outstanding Payroll Resume 10 SampleCustomize this Outstanding Payroll Resume 10 SampleCreate Resume ObjectiveTo gain a high-impact position requiring creative and innovative approaches to problem solving and strategy development.Professional experience05/2008 08/2008 Entertainment Partners Burbank, CAPayroll Accountant Mommas Boys Processed purchase orders and non union payroll for ATL and BTL payments. Amex reconciliations, A/P check runs, and ad-hoc reporting. Downloaded invoices for payment, labor corrections, and journal entries.1st Assistant Production Accountant High School Musical Reality Series Processed union and non-union payroll, and vendor payments. Heavy account reconciliation and trail balance clean-up. Processed invoices, journal entries, and petty cash.07/2007 05/2008 Cast and Crew Burbank, CA1st Assistant Production Accountant Outnumbered Processed start paperwork, payroll, and vendor payments. Set-up vendors, eingabe purchase orders, and proces sed check requests. Processed invoices, journal entries, and account reconciliation.1st Assistant Production Accountant TMZ Processed payroll and vendor payments. Set-up vendors, input purchase orders, and processed check requests. Processed invoices, journal entries, and account reconciliation.03/2007 07/2007 Entertainment Partners Burbank, CAPayroll Accountant The Biggest auf zum frhlichen jagener Processed purchase orders, non union payroll for ATL, BTL, and Aftra payments. Processed new start paperwork, any crew issues, and set-up new vendors. Downloaded invoices for payment, labor corrections, and journal entries.Payroll Accountant Weeds Processed union payroll for SAG, DGA, ATL, IA, extras, and Teamsters. Processed vendor payments, petty cash, and payroll invoices. Assisted assistant production accountant with Vendor set-up and coding.12/2005 03/2007 NBC Universal Universal City, CAPayroll Administrator Served as a liaison between Payroll and IT departments. Processed all daily and weekly payrolls for Studio, Show, ATL, and Residual payments. Processed vendor payments. Developed, tested, and implemented new payroll processes as needed.Created standard queries for different departments as needed. Part of a functional People soft upgrade committee making sure payrolls needs were met. Updated payroll calendars, company custom tables, and provided all the technical assistance in the payroll department. Supervised payroll clerks, verified and audited payroll input. Processed weekly, monthly, quarterly, and annual payments of taxes. Daily funding of payroll deposit accounts. Worked with ADP to ensure timely deposits.06/2005 12/2005 Entertainment Partners Burbank, CAPayroll Accountant Extreme Makeover Home Edition Payroll for ATL and BTL crew as well as inputting purchase orders and invoices. Proficient with all modules of Vista Accounting Software. Fast 10-key numeric entry. Created spreadsheets for various cost analysis projects. Journal entries monthl y general ledger closing trial balance clean up.Audited expense reports, made deposits and bank account funding, and paid invoices.05/2001 05/2005 Occidental Petroleum Los Angeles, CAPayroll Analyst Processed payrolls, garnishments, expense reports, and monthly vehicle reports utilizing People soft, Oracle, and HRMS data systems. Created, updated, and balanced various spreadsheets. Trained new employees on various systems. Worked directly with various worksites including Human Resources, legal department, court agencies, IRS, and state tax agencies to set up new hires, new garnishment vendors, and tax payments. Made sure allrequired forms were in that related to payroll (i.e. tax forms, court orders, and any other correspondence). Semi, Monthly, and Quarterly payments of company taxes. Bank reconciliation. Month-end General ledger. Processing of company stock options and monthly benefits. Continually implemented new and efficient department procedures. 12/1999 03/2001 ICOM Los Ang eles, CABilling Rep Processed customer payments, chargebacks, and refunds from credit card, cash, and check payments. Answered billing inquiries via email and phone. Assisted customers with website issues. Set up new accounts and inputted all info into the system. Provided quality assurance calls, relieved receptionist and assisted customer service as needed.EducationUniversity of Phoenix Online Bachelors Accounting-Junior standing.SKILLS ABILITIESExcel, PowerPoint, Word, QuickBooks, Oracle, People soft, Vista, PSL, ADP, Paychex, multi-tasker, analytical, strong problem solver, and excellent written and verbal communications.Customize Resume

What You Should Do About Example of a Good Resume Beginning in the Next 10 Minutes

What You Should Do About Example of a Good Resume Beginning in the Next 10 Minutes The Start of Example of a Good Resume If you do choose to supply personal interests in your resume, you truly have to think about what you include. Chronological events are represented by many applicants to create the resume and it is likewise liked by recruiter for the reason that it aids in making the obvious picture in mind about the candidate. Then you are able to bring the conversation to your qualifications and why you ought to be hired. All the skilled resumes share various characteristics. What You Can Do About Example of a Good Resume Starting in the Next 8 Minutes So you have to be wise like Danny. If you would like to repair your resume, all it requires is a small hard work and thought. Whether youre searching for a job linked to design or not, design thinking is an invaluable skill to get. At the same time that you will always require a printed, great looking resume to take to poss ible job interviews, using technology can greatly boost your possibility at that dream job. You ought to find specific job opening posted by a particular geschftliches miteinander you would love to submit an application for. If you are searching for a professional job, youll need to get a resume. It is simpler than you might think to compose a superb administrative resume that could let you find the job of your dreams. If youre confused regarding what things you should include and emphasize in your resume, and what things to avoid at all price, there are lots of websites you can locate on the Internet that offer tutorials about how to compose a resume, together with free resume examples. Distinct varieties of fonts can be found in MS word and it depends upon your option to select the very best font which isnt too stylish for representing yourself through resume. Developing a great resume is the very best way it is possible to make that first impression. There are several dif ferent software programs offered for computers that may help anyone build a job resume. There are various resume examples which can be downloaded on the internet. The essential skills section is the most important in the coach resume. Know a list of hobbies for a resume isnt mandatory. There are lots of baseball coach resume examples readily available online which can help you in writing your resume. Example of a Good Resume and Example of a Good Resume - The Perfect Combination Lets take a quick glance at the five key sections of the typical resume. At the peak of the resume you ought to have your name and it needs to be easily readable. There are lots of sources online and in the bookstore that supply you with sample resumes. Make certain that you include all appropriate information which is pertinent to the job posting. Have a look at free resume examples on the net and youre going to observe that headings ought to be the exact same all throughout. The very first sec tion is a Summary of Qualifications which gives you a concise summary of your qualifications. Highlighting the belastung employment record will demonstrate the responsibilities an individual previously held and the length of time they usually maintains a job. There is a particular fashion of resumes called Internship resume. Example of a Good Resume and Example of a Good Resume - The Perfect Combination Nevertheless, theres a difference and its helpful to understand when to compose a CV vs resume. Do a search utilizing any of the significant search engines such as Google, Yahoo, or MSN and you will find tons of resources to aid you. Good is insufficient, neither is terrific. The Ultimate Example of a Good Resume Trick Among the things that most folks worry about on their resume is the shortage of necessary work experience thats needed for any job. Theres probably lots of excellent data in your bad resume. Building a great job resume is not hard, especially in the day and age of computers with spell check. Imagine plenty of other individuals copy the exact same one. The community edition of UiPath is free of charge and everyone can download and utilize it. Your professional resume is significant in many of means. Do an internet search, or even better ask friends that are in good jobs if you may use their resume as an idea template.

Hiring New College Grads vs. Seasoned Recruiters - Spark Hire

Hiring New College Grads vs. Seasoned Recruiters - Spark HireWhen I managed a recruiting team, I learned early on that I had more success when hiring new college grads versus seasoned recruiters. This is not to say that I never hired seasoned recruiters or that they never worked out when hired. There were a couple of experienced recruiters that I hired who fit into our culture well and easily transitioned into our specific industry. However, when looking at the most successful recruiters hired, many of those were entry level college grads.There are many different reasons why you should considering hiring college grads versus seasoned recruiters and Im going to share with you 4 key reasons why I chose to hire grads over seasoned recruiters most of the time.1. The possibility of undiscovered talentIn recruitment, we are always looking for the best recruiters who will be relentless in finding the top talent our clients need. With this in mind, we often believe that we need to consider i ndividuals with recruiting track records that can serve as proof of their success.However, I firmly believe that by considering new college grads, you have the opportunity to uncover top recruiting talent before someone else lays their claim.Lets face it, not many of us dreamt of being recruiters before we got into the business. Quite often, the most successful recruiters are the ones who stumbled into the business, thinking that it was a gap filler while they decided what else they wanted to do. I know this was the case for me and I am forever thankful to my first recruiting manager who saw something in me that lead her to believe that I had what it took to be successful in the industry. Because she took a chance on me, I found my niche and career.2. Opportunity excitementIn the past, I have always been blown away by the difference in attitude between many seasoned recruiters and college grads when it comes to pursuing their career in recruitment. Many seasoned recruiters I intervi ewed seemed to lack the excitement and passion for learning that the new college grads brought to the table.Perhaps for many experienced recruiters the industry becomes somewhat dull to them after a period of time. Ive never been able to quite put my finger on it, but I often sensed a greater passion from many of the grads that I interviewed and hired on as recruiters.Many of the new grads that I hired seemed to understand the opportunity that they were being given. They knew that many recruiting managers were only considering seasoned recruiters and that I was taking a chance on them, having little to no recruiting experience. This in itself seemed to instill in the grads more of an appreciation and passion for the opportunity.3. Access to fresh ideasIt always amazed me at how bringing in someone new and fresh to the industry could also bring in new ideas and strategies. Sometimes, being in the industry for so long can limit your out of the box thinking in a way. Hiring and trainin g someone new can open the doors to new ideas and thoughts of how you are going about your recruiting strategy.I received some of the best process improvement ideas from the new college grads that hired.4. Opportunity to groom your future leadershipIve always said that it is so much easier to train versus re-train. When you hire a seasoned recruiter, you need to keep in mind that that recruiter was trained by someone else. Your strategies and the way your company handles business can be completely different from what your seasoned recruiter knows. This means that you often need to re-train a seasoned recruiter, which can be more difficult than training someone new to recruiting.When you hire new college grads, you are able to provide training and mold them into the type of recruiters that you want in your company. You are not concerned with breaking bad habits that may have been taught at another recruitment agency.Hiring new college grads provides them the opportunity to be groomed specifically for your company. This eventually allows grads the opportunity to grow with your company as leaders. Many new college grads will see and understand this opportunity and it can be a win-win for both your company and the grad.What has your experience been when hiring new college grads versus seasoned recruiters? Please share your comments below.Image Dean Drobot/BigStock.com

5 Mobile Apps for Engineers

5 Mobile Apps for Engineers 5 Mobile Apps for Engineers 5 Mobile Apps for EngineersConsider this scenario You are in the field and you need to obtain the mechanical properties for a given geometric section. If you had a laptop, you would boot it, launch a program, and get the results in a couple of minutes. Instead, you take out your internetfhiges mobiltelefon and launch an app. The app takes between oneand two seconds to launch and has the specific options you need to quickly complete this task. You just saved a few minutes to solve a simple problem with just the tap of a finger.The computing power, ease-of-use, and convenience of unmatched portability are the key reasons why thousands of smartphone users download apps on their phones daily. A mobile app is in a broader sense a software program, but its more dedicated and task-oriented than an intensive app for a computer, says Mike Barone, senior design engineer for Hamilton Sundstrand, a division of UTC.Apps are specific and fit in perfectly with the tasks engineers do daily, says Barone. There are several apps available for electrical and civil engineers, but there arent as many for mechanical engineers. According to Barone, The demand is there but its unrecognized yet.Mechanical Engineering Apps on iPhoneCounting only the two major platforms in the mobile space today, iOS and Android, there are more than 500,000 apps available unterstellung days, says David Homes, director of technology at IPROBLUE Tech, which develops mobile engineering solutions. This is a market that pretty much just started in July 2008, when Apple launched the App Store and made it an accessible platform for developers to self-publish there.There are, however, fewer mechanical-engineering-related apps on the market and the ones that are currently available offer formulas, calculations, or basic reference information. The following are five examples of engineering apps for the iPhoneA part of MultiEducators iPhone Formulator Line, thi s app contains over 300 mechanical engineering formulas.Mechanical Engineer A part of MultiEducators iPhone Formulator Line, the app contains over 300 mechanical engineering formulas. There are over 300 additional conversion formulas in the program as well as 70 area formulas. Major areas covered in the program include bearings, belts, boilers, brakes, clutches, elevators, gears, vernderbar power, heat transfer, internal combustion, kinetic energy, metalworking, plates, plumbs, power plants, refrigeration, shafts springs, and vehicle drive.AutoCAD WS has a number of features previously found only in AutoCADs desktop design software.AutoCAD WS Autodesks web and mobile app lets you view, edit, and share DWG drawings through a web browser or mobile device. AutoCAD WS has a number of features previously found only in AutoCADs desktop design software.Cross Sections Calc IPROBLUE Techs parametric section and member calculator computes 21 geometric and mechanical properties for 23 commonly used sections used in beam and column design as well as general mechanics of materials.Mech Ref. This app is a reference for all things mechanical. Currently the app offers drill and tap sizes, fastener clearance holes, sheet metal gauge tables, and math and physics reference.Mechanics Basics This app contains a large selection of mechanics laws, equations, tables, and reference material that engineers may find useful during their work.Most apps range from free, free but ad-supported, and paid, anywhere from $.99 to $19.99, informs Homes. I particularly have never paid more than $9.99 for an app. But then again this is a matter of what functionality they provide and whether or not you are willing to pay for it.The Future of Engineering AppsBy 2015, the mobile app market is expected to be worth $25 1000000000000 dollars (up from $6.8 billion in 2010), according to a report by TechCrunch. With the new tablets on the market, the rate of new mobile application is expected to increase b ig time during 2011, says Homes.Barone hopes to see more mechanical-engineering-focused apps in the coming years. There are several potential apps for mechanical engineers Its almost every chapter of every engineering book that we study. Each chapter goes through the theory, derivation, and derived formula. Engineers understand the theory and want the formula and derivation, he says. Pressure vessel design could be a good fit for a mobile app with a series of sub apps for specific types of vessels, adds Barone.A robust notification system for updates is critical for all engineering apps. Its extremely important that auto update info for critical issues that could affect the results of these apps should have a robust notification system to the user. We dont want to be designing a space vehicle and get the wrong structure because of a flaw in an app, highlights Barone.Eventually, the future of mechanical engineering apps rests in the hands of the users as it will depend on how motivat ed they are to use the apps, says Barone. The younger engineers having these tools will be more productive and will enjoy their jobs more. I believe a happier workforce is a more productive workforce. Apps are an enabler to make productivity and fun to be synergistic.The future of mechanical engineering apps rests in the hands of the users as it will depend on how motivated they are to use the apps.Mike Barone, senior design engineer, Hamilton Sundstrand, a division of UTC.

If you use social media like this, you may be a psychopath

If you use social media like this, you may be a psychopathIf you use social media like this, you may be a psychopathAnother day, another study that may indicate whether you are a psychopath or not. According to one research, it could come down to the way you use social media.Victoria University psychology Professor Marc Wilson found that people with psychopathic tendencies tend to spend more time on social networks. Specifically, they tend to deutsche post dhl more highly edited selfies in an attempt to network and get more ambitious and coveted roles. (Note to self stop posting selfies where you look good.)Follow Ladders on FlipboardFollow Ladders magazines on Flipboard covering Happiness, Productivity, Job Satisfaction, Neuroscience, and moreWilson told NewstalkZB, Cause it provides a platform for self-aggrandizement, they tend to post more selfies and they tend to take more time editing those photos that present them in a way that makes them look as good as possible.A 2016 study t hat looked at61 senior professionals in the US found that 21% hadclinically significant levels ofpsychopathictraits. The forensic psychologist that ran the study said psychopaths tend to move up the corporate ladder swiftly because hiring managers tend to focus more on skills over personality traits.Forpsychopaths, it corporate success is a game and they dont mind if they violate morals. It is about getting where they want in the company and having dominance over others, he told The Telegraph.Wilson noted thatThere are a number of case studies and Enron, the energy company in the US, which was categorized before its decline by psychopathic behavior. In addition to perfected selfies they probably use other social platforms like LinkedIn to make themselves look especially single so they can continue to dominate their careers.He added that they may actually job hop around a lot as so not to be detected or they get the boot but often it comes in the form of golden handcuffs.Our reputati ons are the things that gain us entry to opportunities, and we continue to enjoy those opportunities until our reputations are sullied, and in the case of the corporate psychopath, that means moving on to another organization.You might also enjoyNew neuroscience reveals 4 rituals that will make you happyStrangers know your social class in the first seven words you say, study finds10 lessons from Benjamin Franklins daily schedule that will double your productivityThe worst mistakes you can make in an interview, according to 12 CEOs10 habits of mentally strong people

The Easy Secret to Making Yourself Better at Anything

The Easy Secret to Making Yourself Better at AnythingThe Easy Secret to Making Yourself Better at AnythingSeptember is Professional Development Month at The Muse Check in all month for ways to boost your skills, get ahead at work, and be the best professional you can possibly be.Im a big believer in self-reflection, and Im all about finding ways to make things (including myself) better whenever possible. The reality is, none of us are perfect. Whether its for work or personal development, theres always opportunity for growth. And the question for most people isnt if they can do something to improve, but how.Both research and trial and error suggest that one of the best ways to make something more effective is to measure it. So, why elendlage apply this to your own life? A simple tactic that Ive recently adopted is creating my own personal feedback system.How it WorksAt the end of the day, week, meeting, event, you-name-it, rate how you think it went on a scale of one to 10. If it was nt a 10, ask yourself What would have made it a 10?Thats it.Putting a number on an intangible experience suddenly makes what was amazing or not so amazing about it a lot more clear. When you acknowledge that things didnt go perfectly, you accept the fact that theres room for improvement, and more importantly, what that improvement might look like. Its an insanely easy way to gain clarity, and the approach shines a bright light on exactly what you can do differently next time. In ActionThink back to your last team discussion. If youd score your wertzuwachs an eight out of 10, what could have made it a 10? Talking a tiny bit less and listening more to the great ideas being shared? Or maybe not being afraid to speak up when you had a really great idea? Keep that in mind next time.If youre new at sales, perhaps your most recent pitch was a six. So what would a solid 10 look like? Starting off a little less aggressively in the beginning and instead asking more questions to get a better s ense of your customers needs? You can bet thatll happen in your next pitch. Perhaps you met a few interesting people at that networking event last week- good but not great, a seven. What would have made your time more worthwhile? Making your way around the room more instead of spending so much time with that one person you already knew? There you go.This doesnt only apply to professional improvement- take a moment to zoom out and think back to the last year. Taken as a whole, how does it stack up, and how could it have been better? A five or an eight, youll know what made it so. Whether its spending more time with family or setting personal goals earlier, adjusting your priorities for the year ahead is so much easier.cOn the flip side, if any experience did deserve a perfect 10 (be honest), then youve got all the more reason to pat yourself on the back. You did your best, and it couldnt have gone any better- congratulations Consistently ranking my own performance on this scale has b een the most effective and powerful way Ive found to fine-tune any areas of improvement. Best of all, rating yourself and facing imperfections is much less intimidating than having someone else (read your boss) do it for you. As long as you know what getting better looks like and make an active effort towards it, youll be golden.Photo of personal growth courtesy of Shutterstock.