Do These 3 Things Before Abruptly Quitting Your Job

Many of us have a moment in our career when we'd love to head into our boss's office and shout, "take this job and shove it."

Fortunately, we usually avoid making a scene when this urge hits us. But just because we're tactful doesn't mean we make the right decision about our career. There are times, of course, when leaving a job is the best thing for us. However, it's good to exercise some caution before abruptly firing that email off to your boss or the HR department announcing that you're quitting.

When you have the urge to get up and leave do these three things first.

Wait 24 hours. In most situations things will look a little different the next morning and we might be more appreciative of our job or the people we work with once we've had a chance to get away from the office. Everyone experiences times of struggle and these are usually the times in our lives and careers when we learn the most. Sometimes a desire to quit is a desire to avoid doing something difficult but necessary for our career.

Discuss with your family, a mentor, or a trusted friend. Sit down with those closest to you and ask for advice. Often, those who love you and know you best will see some part of the situation that you haven't considered yet. Use this time to listen well.

Meet with your boss. You likely won't feel good about leaving your job without laying all your cards on the table with your supervisor. Well, almost all your cards. Avoid anything that seems to blame others or appears to avoid taking responsibility. But if you don't feel like your work is recognized, think you're overdue for a promotion, or want more responsibility, a clear and honest conversation with your boss might just bring you what you want.

If not, you'll probably have earned your supervisor's respect, will feel good that you addressed the issues head-on, and can leave knowing that you didn't run from a tough situation.





 

Daily Leap Career Video of the Week: 5 Tips for Job Interviews

Each week we present our Daily Leap Career Video of the Week. The video we share presents news or advice related to career and life development, searching for a job, the economy and employment, and other career-related topics.

In the video below Brian Tracy provides some interviewing tips to get your dream job. Watch the video for some useful tips.

High 5 Career Transitions Roundup: Inspiring Quotes to Help You Get Through Your Work Day

This is our weekly roundup of some of the best career-related articles, interviews, blogs, etc., we've read during the week. We share them so you have some great resources to prepare you for the coming week. Enjoy!

• Inspiring Quotes to Help You Get Through Your Work Day: "If you find yourself in a little mid-week or mid-day slump, take a few moments to re-energize yourself with these inspiring quotes from some of the world’s greatest thinkers."

• Making Time for Networking as a Working Parent: "being a working parent doesn’t mean the end of a thriving network, it just means you have to get a bit more creative and deliberate."

• 12 Things Successful People Never Reveal About Themselves at Work: "Bosses are quick to catch on to naysayers who drag down morale, and they know that there are always enthusiastic replacements waiting just around the corner."

• 6 Harsh Truths That Will Make You a Better Leader: "As a leader, you don't automatically have followers, only subordinates. It's your behavior as a leader that determines whether or not those subordinates ever turn into followers."
• Bored at Work? Science Says That's a Good Thing: "In the absence of boredom, one would remain trapped in unfulfilling situations, and miss out on many emotionally, cognitively, and socially rewarding experiences."

5 Work Habits to Support Your Personal Life

Our habits contribute significantly to our success in life and in our career. To be successful we need to develop the right habits that support who we want to be and the accomplishments we want to achieve.

Last week we discussed personal habits that can support you in your career. Today we look at those work habits you've developed and how they can be beneficial to your personal life.

Organization. The ability to remain organized amid complexity, chaos, and competing demands is a skill that is needed in the work place and, obviously, allows one to maintain order in your personal life when surprises inevitably come. Develop a system to remain organized at work and it can serve you well at home.

Effective listening. Demonstrating the ability to listen to others well is necessary for successful communication and builds healthy and successful relationships, both in your work situation and in your personal life. We all need to become good at listening and truly hearing others and the work place provides a great opportunity to develop this skill.

Avoiding procrastination. Developing the skill of addressing what is important without delay is critical to becoming a trusted part of your work team. It requires you to identify what is most important and addressing this task to meet the demands of your work schedule. There are always things we'd like to put off at home and learning to avoid procrastination at work can help us be more successful with these tasks in our personal life.

Never Say "It's not my job". You are a team player and are willing to take on any tasks necessary to get the job done, even if they don't fit your job description. The same is true in our personal lives: sometimes we need to take care of the garbage, paint the basement, fix the door, or do something else that we're not trained in or might tale us out of our comfort zone.

Avoid distraction. Staying focused on the task at hand, without getting distracted by coworkers or social media, is a key to success at work. This also helps our personal lives and prevents us from spending our weekend playing video games or staring at our phone when our friend or child is trying to talk to us.

Daily Leap Career Video of the Week: How to Make An Extra $100 Every Month

Each week we present our Daily Leap Career Video of the Week. The video we share presents news or advice related to career and life development, searching for a job, the economy and employment, and other career-related topics.

In the video below from The Financial Diet, Erin Lowry from Broke Millennial, shares unique ways to start earning some side money, and make an additional $100 (or more) every month. Watch the video for some useful tips.

High 5 Weekly Career Transitions Roundup: 6 Nonverbal Signs That Guarantee You Made a Great First Impression

This is our weekly roundup of some of the best career-related articles, interviews, blogs, etc., we've read during the week. We share them so you have some great resources to prepare you for the coming week. Enjoy!

• 6 Nonverbal Signs That Guarantee You Made a Great First Impression: "We all like people who like us. If you show me you're genuinely happy to meet me, I'll instantly start to like you.
  And I will smile, make eye contact, laugh, and extend the conversation, all of which will help you relax and be yourself."

• 4 Reasons Why You Should Start a Business When You're Young: "Failing fast and failing often is important, but failing early is key. After your first big failure, the next few will be easy."

• Why Curiosity is the Greatest Leadership Trait of All: "While other people seem to think that once they have found a solution, they can stop looking for new ideas, great leaders tirelessly go on pursuing the new and the better."

• Investing in Yourself--Hobbies That Can Help You Get Ahead: "I’ve had the opportunity to sell some cutting boards and have had a few pieces commissioned. The hope is to use the sales to fund more projects and tools."
• 5 Ways to Refresh Your Mid-Career LinkedIn Profile: "Optimizing your LinkedIn profile means taking a hard look at your online presence as a whole. Are you giving the impression you think you are? Do you come across as competent?"

5 Personal Habits to Support Your Career

Some people try to separate their work lives and their personal lives, avoiding outside friendships with co-workers, and striving to leave work at work, without spending their evening and nights attached to their laptops.

This approach certainly has its benefits and it’s unhealthy to spend all our time chained to the demands of email and sales spreadsheets.

Of course, we know this separation is rarely clear and our personal lives and habits can have a tremendous impact on our success at work.

Here, then, are five personal habits to cultivate that can benefit your career and lead to greater success:

Get sufficient sleep. Of the habits to focus on here, this is perhaps the most important. If you’re not getting enough sleep you will have difficulty implementing the additional habits, you will struggle focusing on the job, and may be more irritable with your colleagues and customers. Most people need between 7 and 8 hours of sleep each night so make that your goal.

Avoid alcohol on work nights. Contrary to popular belief, drinking alcohol does not help you sleep. It might help you fall asleep easier but alcohol makes it more difficult for you to get into deeper levels of sleep, preventing your body and your brain from getting the rest the need. You might, of course, experience a hangover the next day at work depending upon how much you drank the night before. Perhaps it’s better to leave that trip to the local brewery or glass of wine after dinner for the weekend.

Get up early. One habit that highly successful individuals often advocate is getting up earlier. This affords you an opportunity to get focused on the important goals of the day, spend some time in meditation or prayer, and get in some exercise and a healthy breakfast.

Be attentive to the good. It’s impossible to overestimate the importance of paying attention to the good in your life, avoiding the steady stream of negative news and complaining co-workers, and keeping your focus on the positive.

Make time for physical activity. Think creatively about your physical activity and do things you enjoy. Your exercise doesn’t have to be at the gym. Maybe you prefer to go for a swim, or perhaps your routine involves an evening walk with the dog. If you can bike to work that’s great. But the important thing is just to ensure that you’re able to get in some fairly strenuous physical activity three-to-five times a week. You’ll notice that staying active will make it easier for you to get good sleep and avoid unhealthy habits.

There are many other personal habits that can benefit your career but starting with these five is a great place to start.

Daily Leap Career Video of the Week: Change Your Questions, Change Your Life

Each week we present our Daily Leap Career Video of the Week. The video we share presents news or advice related to career and life development, searching for a job, the economy and employment, and other career-related topics.

In the video below Carl Fussman discusses how he discovered the power of asking questions and how good questions can lead to better solutions. Watch the video for more.

High 5 Weekly Career Transitions Roundup: How to Get the Job Without the Degree

This is our weekly roundup of some of the best career-related articles, interviews, blogs, etc., we've read during the week. We share them so you have some great resources to prepare you for the coming week. Enjoy!

• How to Get the Job Without the Degree: "When the interview rolls around, ask pointed questions to show that you not only understand the company’s pain points but also see where potential solutions are and how to implement them successfully."

• How to Figure Out If You're in the Wrong Job: "A mismatch in job and motives will wear you down and eventually cause you to fail to live up to your potential."

• 3 Steps to Creating a Disruptive Mindset: "When it comes to making big changes in the world around you, you must first challenge your mindset. Mindset is a powerful thing. Our mindsets determine everything."

• 6 Warning Signs You Need More Sleep, Based on Your Work Behavior: "Because sleep deprivation affects cognition and focus, it's much harder to make sense of information or to remember it. You might have to ask people to repeat themselves because you unintentionally tune out from fatigue."
• Building a Great Team: "The greatest leaders ... are the ones who provide additional opportunities for learning and growth at all levels, requiring participants to continually stretch."

How to Decide Between Multiple Job Offers

You’ve sent out a million resumes, gone on a thousand job interviews, and all your hard work has paid off. You have a job offer.

But wait, there’s more!

You have multiple job offers. You’re in demand. That’s great news but it also complicates your life.

How do you know which job offer to accept?

Consider these factors to aid in making the best decision for your career.

Goals. What do you want to accomplish in your career? What skills do you need to get there? The clearer you are on the answer to those two questions, the clearer you can be about which job better matches your career goals. When you have multiple job offers you have the luxury of thinking beyond your short-term needs and consider the best long-term fit for you.

Location. You obviously want to factor in the location of the jobs and the distance you would need to travel. If you enjoy a long commute this might not be an issue, but if you prefer to spend more time at home or with your family, this might be a consideration, along with factoring in transportation costs.

Related to location is the question of travel. Will you need to travel for one job but not another? How often will you need to be away for work? You might love to travel and see this as a great opportunity or you might have small children at home and want to avoid frequent time away.

Work environment. Each work place has its own unique work environment or style. You need to determine the work environment of your potential employer and see if this fits with you. Do you like to dress casually but would need to wear a suit? Have you heard that your immediate supervisor likes to micromanage? Is the team or company welcoming of new employees? You’ll want to try to answer these questions and determine what situation works best for your work style, personality, and career plans.

Salary. You will most likely be concerned with how much money you make and, though it might not be the most important factor to you, it can make the decision easier if most other considerations are equal. However, don’t just think about the money you see in your paycheck. Pay attention to the benefits offered. Will you have a 401K? What are the details of your health plan? You also want to factor in continuous learning and ask if your new company provides you with a budget to attend training sessions.

Opportunity. This factor might be difficult to assess but it’s important to determine if there is a clear career path at a potential employer. You don’t want to accept a job that provides an immediate dead-end, with limited chance for promotion, and will require you to move elsewhere to advance in your career.

There are definitely other considerations to make when choosing a job, and some factors will have more personal importance than others, but these five can serve as a starting point to make a good decision on the job offer you accept.

Daily Leap Career Video of the Week: "There is No Success Without Failure"

Each week we present our Daily Leap Career Video of the Week. The video we share presents news or advice related to career and life development, searching for a job, the economy and employment, and other career-related topics.

In the video below, Evan Carmichael shares experiences from successful people about the failures in their careers and how they led to future success. Watch the video for more.

High 5 Weekly Career Transitions Roundup: Should We Be Happy at Work?

This is our weekly roundup of some of the best career-related articles, interviews, blogs, etc., we've read during the week. We share them so you have some great resources to prepare you for the coming week. Enjoy!

• Should We Be Happy at Work: "In general when we look at what makes people happy and effective at work, it’s being able to spend time with a close group of people. You need to structure work in such a way that people have those opportunities."

• Why You Should Always Give the Credit and Take the Blame: "An unselfish team starts with a leader who gives away the credit when things go well and accepts the blame when they don’t."

• 5 Misconceptions About Networking: "if you believe that networking is a skill you can develop you are more likely to be motivated to improve it, work at it harder at it, and get better returns for your networking than someone with a fixed mind-set."

• How to Build a Better Company with More Engaged Employees: "But you want your team to ask for help -- that shows they're putting the customer, or project, or company ahead of their egos."
• The Future is Freelance: "Companies can make themselves more attractive to top workers by empowering freelancers to manage their workload, collaborate with teammates and continuously improve their craft."

Signs from Your Company That It's Time to Look for a New Job

If you work at a company or business, large or small, you might be getting some signals that its time to look for another job.

You don’t want to ignore these signs, or you might find yourself as part of the next round of layoffs.

Notice the following indicators in your company and it will be time to ready your resume and strongly consider moving on.

The company fails to meet its financial goals, loses money, or loses market share. When your company is not competitive in the marketplace over a period of time there will be difficult decisions to make. Often those hard decisions include a reduction in work force. No one wants to be on a sinking ship. This is a signifier that you should consider looking toward one of your competitors that is succeeding in your industry.

The company lays off staff and does not replace them. A company that reduces its staff frequently and does not replace them is likely in a difficult financial situation and is trying to save money. A company that is cutting costs and reducing staff is often a stressful place to work and the company may not be able to provide you with stable employment and clear ways to develop your career.

The company no longer provides you with an opportunity to advance. Perhaps you’ve hit the wall and there is no way to move forward in your company. This can happen in a small company with a boss that intends to remain long term or maybe you’re in an industry that prefers frequent turnover rather than offering opportunity for slow and steady promotion. If you want to move up in your company, develop new skills, and advance in your career you may need to consider a new employer to acquire the skills you desire.  

The company offers no training, nor does it provide support or funding for continued learning. When your employer does not value your knowledge and skills enough to invest in them with additional training you will need to consider a new position or watch your skills stagnate. Change is constant in business today and you need to have opportunities to continually upgrade your skills and knowledge.

When your company is sending you signals that its future is unclear you might want to take the time to update your resume and LinkedIn profile, deepen your network, and keep your eyes and ears open for another opportunity.