High 5 Weekly Career Transitions Roundup: 5 Signs it's Time to Quit Your Job

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!

• 5 Signs it's Time to Quit Your Job:"The following exercises will help you shift your thinking so that your exit strategy can become a powerful experience rather than a slow motion trainwreck."

• The Simple Productivity-Boosting Method You're Probably Overlooking: "The National Safety Council has estimated that fatigued employees cost employers about $136 billion a year in lost productivity."

• Should You Take That New Job or the Promotion?: "Which of the two companies can give you better long-term opportunities in which you can make a difference? A difference maker is someone who can see the impact of his or her work on the organization."

• 5 Strategies for Enjoying Your Workday: "
  Your company might provide snacks, board games and holiday parties, but it doesn’t hurt to customize your workday for a happier you
  ."
• 4 Easy Ways to Recognize How Your Work is Meaningful: "these are all ways that your work – and the money you earn - is meaningful to you and your family."

Is it Time to Stay or Go?

The grass is always greener and sometimes the job seems shinier on the other side but are you really ready for a move?

There are legitimate reasons to consider a job change but sometimes we bolt at the wrong time and end up harming our career. How can we know when it’s time to go and when we should stick it out?

Factor in these considerations when you evaluate whether you’re ready for the greener pastures of a new job.

Room to grow. Does your current position or place of employment offer you opportunities to develop and move up, or have you hit the ceiling? If your career advancement has been hindered this could be a good time to look for something else. However, if your company offers plentiful areas to learn and to move up and around, you might want to stay put and take advantage of the opportunities.

Sometimes we’re simply unaware of what is available. If you trust your supervisor have a candid conversation about your career and how you’d like it to develop (or speak with a representative from the Human Resources department). You might just discover opportunities exist that you weren’t previously aware of. 

Support systems. Have you developed a positive and supportive network of colleagues, supervisors, and mentors within your organization? If so, this might be a company to settle in with and develop roots. On the other hand, you might also be able to talk honestly with trusted colleagues about other opportunities you’re interested in pursuing and seek out their advice.

If you find yourself alone and isolated in your job, with little support, it is unlikely you’ll thrive and feel that you’re making a valuable contribution to the company and enhancing your career. This could be a good time to look for a situation that provides a better match for your skills, interests, and needs as an employee.

Anger management. If you’ve been overlooked for a promotion at work it can be easy to feel unappreciated, respond angrily, and seek out another job. Seeking out another employer could be the proper response, particularly if your opportunities are limited.

But perhaps you weren’t ready for the promotion? Take a step back, away from the intense emotions, and evaluate your current situation. Perhaps there are some things you still need to learn or skills you need to develop before you’re ready to move up.

Respond to your interest in a career move by evaluating your current situation, opportunities, and support systems, and avoiding reacting hastily in anger or frustration.

Daily Leap Career Video of the Week: The Best Advice for Getting a Raise ... From Kids

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 Fast Company, the host interviews kids to get their advice on asking for a raise. Not a bad strategy because kids usually get what they want. Take a look.

High 5 Weekly Career Transitions Roundup: 3 Ways to Be More Productive

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!

• 3 Ways to Be More Productive:"When you apply an essentialist framework to tasks, you’ll quickly find that the anxiety surrounding its perceived complexity melts away."

• How to Help Your Spouse Cope With Work Stress: "Develop calming end-of-the-workday habits and rituals. You both need time to decompress."

• 101 Time Management Tips to Boost Productivity: "Double-check your work so that you don’t spend the time going back and correcting your mistakes."

• 15 Traits That Set Influential People Apart: "Influential people move through life with purpose, conscious of their actions and of how others may perceive them."
• 15 Podcasts You Should Be Listening To Every Week: "Here's a list of the podcasts I find most valuable as a leader, entrepreneur, and human being....Together, this holistic list will help you expand as a professional and as a person."

8 Steps to Your Best Day on the Job

Instead of hitting the snooze button, dreading the office and your co-workers, you can get up with energy and enthusiasm to face the day.

When you do that you’ll be on your way to having your best day at work, ready to tackle the opportunities that come your way.

Like anything in life, your best work day comes from preparation. Here are eight steps to prepare for your best work day … and weeks … and months.

Get good sleep. It all starts with this. You have to ignore all those loud voices telling you that the only way to succeed is to work longer than everything else, sleep be damned. Adequate sleep is critically important to success and most of us need 7-8 hours every night. If you must, schedule it in and treat it like one of your other key tasks of the day.

Exercise. After you awake begin your day with some movement. Choose something you enjoy: a bike ride, a run, some push-ups or burpees, or maybe just dance wildly to a favorite song.

Meditate. You don’t need to go off to a monastery to learn how to meditate. Download an app or check out some meditation practice on YouTube. Even five minutes every morning will slow your mind and help you get settled in and focused on having a good day.

Write. If you don’t keep a journal now is a good time to start. It does not have to be complicated. You’re not writing for others so don’t worry about doing it “right.” Consider writing a few lines about the events of the previous day, note some projects you are working on, take some time to brainstorm possible solutions to any issues, and end by jotting down several things you are grateful for in your life.

Eat energizing foods. Your breakfast should provide you with energy and you’ll want to eat something with protein. Avoid a lot of breads and sugary cereals.  Try eggs and yogurt with fruit. Add a protein smoothie. Pay attention to your body in order to discover the foods that energize you and the ones that slow you down and be sure to eliminate the latter from your diet.

Greet everyone with a smile. Set the tone for your day and in your relationships with your colleagues and manager by greeting everyone you meet warmly. Smiling has a therapeutic effect on the one smiling and on the one receiving the smile. So, don’t be stingy with that grin.

Move before lunch. Particularly if you have a sedentary job, be sure to get some movement in before you grab your (healthy and energizing) lunch. Perhaps go for a brisk walk around the building or the surrounding neighborhood, or maybe you have time to pop over to a nearby gym for a quick workout. You’ll enjoy increased energy and focus for the afternoon.

Plan tomorrow. Before you leave work, plan for the next day. Write down the major tasks or goals you have so when you arrive tomorrow morning you are focused and ready to get after it.

Implement these eight steps tomorrow and you’ll be on your way to a better and more productive day on the job.

Daily Leap Career Video of the Week: How to Create a Better Morning Routine

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, Tim Ferriss offers advice for creating a great morning routine to get you started on a productive and good day. Take a look.

High 5 Weekly Career Transitions Roundup: 6 Keys to Reaching Out for Job Search Help

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 Keys to Reaching Out for Job Search Help: "
  The more precise your ask, the more likely you are to get what you want, or at least not be kept hanging."

• 8 Ways to Increase Mental Resilience & Avoid Burnout: "I like to think of mental health and work resilience as needing a full toolkit of options to work well. It’s not sufficient to have just one strategy for dealing with a difficult amount of work."

• 5 Ways to Fix a Toxic Workplace: "People nowadays are worn down and underappreciated. These two factors are a breeding ground for toxic behavior--because when people don't feel valued, they lose their desire to try."

• 12 Things Mentally Strong People Do That Nobody Else Does: "Mentally strong people aren’t afraid, intimidated by or jealous of their competitors. In fact, they respect and even like them."
• How to Be More Productive: "Take advantage of longer days and your location, doing tasks outdoors when the weather is nice or indoors when the weather is not."

3 Ways to Develop a Good Reputation on the Job

Your reputation at work is important and can be the difference between an advancing career or one that is stuck in neutral.

A positive reputation means that others recognize your skills and integrity and have you in mind for new opportunities, while a bad reputation can mean you’re easily dismissed from consideration for those opportunities.

Make an effort to safeguard your reputation in the workplace by focusing on these three areas.

Appropriate work relationships. You have a job to do and your employer wants to see that as your focus. Your workplace should not function like a bar; you’re not on the job to pick someone up. Avoid a pattern of workplace romance and flirtation or your boss will view that as your primary interest in the job and won’t deem you a serious candidate for more responsibility.

Watch what you say. And how you say it. Learn to communicate effectively and be positive. Your reputation will be harmed if you speak poorly of your boss and those you work with or are always complaining about your workplace and its practices. Your words should reflect your integrity and character and build up your reputation, rather than tear it down. 

Work hard. Of course, one of the most important things you can do for your reputation at your workplace is to do a good job and work hard. If you become known as someone who can be relied on to do great work you will end up with more opportunities in the future.

Unlike some aspects of our lived, our reputation is something that we can control and change by living out our values, and ensuring that we conduct ourselves with integrity, both on the job and in our relationships with our colleagues and manager.

Daily Leap Career Video of the Week: Tips to Stay Focused and Reduce Stress

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, Ben Angel offers three techniques to increase focus and reduce your stress on the job. Take a look.

High 5 Weekly Career Transitions Roundup: 10 Tips to Change Your Life for the Better

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!

• 10 Tips to Change Your Life for the Better: "
  If your day-to-day doesn’t revolve around projects you’re truly passionate about, take a step back and outline activities that do align with your strongest feelings."

• 15 Traits of Unstoppable People: "Without a healthy dose of self-confidence, you’ll be tempted to accept defeat when you should be finding a way to bounce back from failure."

• Want to Win? Write Stuff Down: "good documentation fuels your company with fluid communication and prevents it from being dragged down by cloistered knowledge."

• When is it Acceptable to Say No to Your Boss?: "Whether you have a great boss or an overly demanding one, you’ll most likely land in a scenario where you’re asked to do something you don’t want to do."
• 9 Hacks to Help You Save More Money: "The higher your net worth, the more passive income potential you have. The more passive income you have, the less you need from your next paycheck."

5 Ways to Deal with an Unreliable Manager

Managers are not perfect and the best managers can recognize their strengths and weaknesses and manage around them, while also learning from their employees and putting them into position to utilize their strengths.

Unfortunately, sometimes you encounter a manger who is unreliable or incompetent and should not have been hired for the position they're in.

How do you navigate a situation where your manager is not effective? Take the following steps until your current reporting situation works itself out.

Document your communication. An unreliable or ineffective manager might be disorganized and have difficulty remembering agreements or understandings you've come to. Be sure to clearly and accurately document your conversations and clarify email exchanges if there is some uncertainty. You want to be able to follow-up with clear documentation about what's been discussed and agreed to.

Find other experts/mentors in the company. Your manager might not be the best person to train you or offer you opportunities to develop in your career. Be proactive and seek out additional mentors within your organization. You can likely do this with your current supervisors approval if you present this in a way that shows your initiative and interest in developing your career.

Take initiative (and don't wait for a plan). Speaking of initiative, show some. An unreliable manager may keep you waiting for feedback on a proposal or avoid giving you counsel on how to proceed on a new project. Go forward and learn from your mistakes. Failure and mistakes are inevitable in life and in your career so go ahead and make them on your own terms.

Take ownership over meetings. Don't wait for your manager to schedule meetings with you. An unreliable manager might schedule infrequent meetings or they might be unfocused. Take charge of the meetings with your supervisor by scheduling them and developing a brief and clear agenda that provides you with the information and resources you need to do your job well.

Be realistic about expectations. If it takes two follow-up emails to your manager in order to get a reply on something important then recognize this and build this into your expectations. Avoid becoming frustrated when you don't get a response after the first message. Managing your expectations can go a long way toward improving your experience with an unreliable manager but a part of those expectation should include the recognition that it's unlikely your supervisor will change. Understanding this will put you in a better position to manage the situation. 

Daily Leap Career Video of the Week: 5 Things I Had to Give Up to Grow My Career

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.

The video below from The Art of Improvement offers five important guidelines to help you grow in your career, including limiting the amount of information you take in. Check it out.

High 5 Weekly Career Transitions Roundup: The Most Important Skill for the 21st Century

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!

• The Most Important Skill for the 21st Century: "
  When people embrace lifelong learning, assimilating new skills isn’t a source of fear and stress—it’s just another part of their career journey
  ."

• Free Online Courses That Will Boost Your Career: "there are some that can help any entrepreneur or aspiring entrepreneur, teaching you such valuable skills as how to create a product, get a startup off the ground, or perform app marketing."

• The Unbelievable Power of Belief Systems: "If you are convinced that something is unattainable, you will be unable to reach it no matter how hard you work."

• How to Prevent Burnout: "Burnout happens when people aren’t given enough time to disconnect, rest, focus on other aspects of life and recharge."
• 5 Secrets of Success According to Jeff Bezos: "Make a list of your big-vision items. Frame it and keep it accessible. Those are your uncompromisable items. Everything else is negotiable."

5 Ways to Ensure Your Vacation Benefits Your Career

A summer vacation can be a great time to build energy for your career or job if you do it right. Unfortunately, many of us don’t know how to relax, nor do we know how to leave work behind.

In order to gain the most benefit from your vacation and return with renewed enthusiasm and focus at work implement the following guidelines for your trip.

Don’t check emails or respond to texts and phone calls. When you are on vacation you need to be on vacation. This is a time for making a clear break with work and get some time to recharge. Make the effort to catch up on your messages before you leave and be sure to set up an out-of-office message.

Be sure to relax and avoid constant motion on your vacation. The point of a vacation or holiday is to relax and recharge, rather than run from one event to another or one historic site to another architectural wonder of the world. By all means enjoy your vacation and see and do whatever you wish but do so at a leisurely pace. Effective pre-planning can help you appreciate the locale while also ensuring that you’re getting in some R & R.

Consume responsibly. It can be tempting to overindulge and eat anything you want or to drink too much while on vacation. While it’s okay to enjoy some of the treats you might discover on your travels or enjoy a drink of the local wine, beer, or whisky, if you overdo it you’ll find that you feel less energized for your return to work and will want time to “recover” from your holiday.

Get enough sleep. Like we just discussed, be sure to get enough rest. Balance a late night out with a leisurely morning and since you’re on vacation, why not treat yourself to a nap? The important consideration here though is to avoid changing your schedule so radically that it becomes difficult to readjust to your normal work schedule.

Give yourself at least a day to recover before returning to work. You don’t want to fly home at 8 pm on a Sunday night and head back to work at 8 am the next morning. 

Take a day to return home, resume your typical routine, catch up on the laundry, and prepare yourself mentally for the return to work.