High 5 Weekly Career Transitions Roundup: 3 Ways to Find the Right Company Culture For You

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 Find the Right Company Culture: "company culture is not one size fits all. You need to decide which style will best boost your engagement and keep you motivated to succeed."

• 5 Signs You're Successful (even if you don't realize it): "Successful people give themselves permission to dream as big as they want.  When you create a vision for your life that might seem wildly ambitious, but you take steps every day towards it, know you are successful."

• Simple Hacks to Fight a Mid-Afternoon Slump: "If you don’t want to get super sweaty, you can still get an energy boost from going on a short walk. Just 10 minutes of walking or climbing the stairs can be more energizing than that extra cup of coffee."

• 4 Principles of Servant Leadership: "Fostering leadership comes in many forms, including coaching, mentorship and growth. Take the time to teach someone the ropes, to offer words of encouragement and answer questions these young leaders have for you. Great leaders give back."
• 7 Ways Young Women Can Assert Themselves at Work:"I’ve found that simply repeating an idea or contribution (with minor rephrasing or recontextualization to avoid repetition) until it’s acknowledged is sometimes the only way for your voice to be heard."

High 5 Weekly Career Transitions Roundup: Making Joy a Priority 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!

• Making Joy a Priority at Work: "By providing people with more of the experiences that engender joy in any team setting, leaders can tap more of the practical power of joy in their companies."

• 9 Tips for Avoiding Loneliness When You Work at Home: "Below, you’ll find a guide for avoiding loneliness when you work from home, including tips from writers like myself and other professionals who’ve learned the best ways to be social without an office."

• What Women Want at Work: "When working women have coworkers and an employer who has their backs plus the opportunity to grow and climb, both hierarchically and financially, their overall job satisfaction gets high marks."

• 10 Companies to Work For if You Want to Like Your Job: "Indeed says these companies got high marks from employees because they each provide an enjoyable work environment."
• How to Have a Difficult Workplace Conversation:"Your conversation is not only about the immediate message itself, but more importantly about the outcome and behavior you want to see afterward."

High Five Weekly Career Transitions Roundup: 8 Paradoxical Habits of Successful People

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!

• 8 Paradoxical Habits of Successful People: "Successful people are passionate about their work, but they don’t let it skew their thinking. They have the ability to step back and look at their work with a critical eye and to accept their mistakes."

• A Revolutionary New Approach to Time Management: "When stress rises, the need to feel in control rises too. Often that leads to reaching for the time management tools to cram more in to already loaded to-do lists. Which only leaves you feeling more depleted."

• Why Women Are Still Making So Much Less Than Men: "The idea that I could ask for more, that my skills and talent were worth more, never crossed my mind."

• 5 Skills Critical for Success & Career Advancement: "In fully committing to choices which serve your career advancement first, your personal brand will start to take shape. You’ll start being deemed as someone to watch and follow."
• How to Talk With a Coworker Who's Having a Tough Time:"For as long as negative emotions show up at work (which is probably forever), you’ll be better off if you have some strategies to help your colleagues through it."

High 5 Weekly Career Transitions Roundup: The Best Time to Ask for a Promotion

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!

• Here is the Best Time to Ask for a Promotion: "
  Visier discovered the ideal times, and circumstances, to receive a promotion. 
  If you’re waiting for cooler weather to ask for a promotion, think again. The research showed summer was the best season to ask for one
  ."

• 4 Steps Women Should Take When Considering a Career Transition: "Take stock of your skill set and what sets you apart. Be brutally honest with yourself about what you do well and where you have previously failed. Ask for feedback."

• Why You're Probably Networking Wrong (and what to do instead): "these tools automatically sync your communication history with your contacts across a variety of networks, and remind you when it's about time to reach out and rekindle those relationships."

• Do This One Thing During Vacation to Come Back Recharged: "When we are on vacation and feel some sense of distance from the hustle and bustle of our daily routine, Kadoch says, life feels good again and gives us the chance to come back to work with more energy and focus."
• 4 Things Leaders Bring With Them Every Day: "Humility opens the door to learning. It also allows you to defer to the person with the greatest subject matter expertise and context about the problem so it gets solved the best way possible."

High 5 Weekly Career Transitions Roundup: How to Tell Your Boss That You're Not Engaged 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!

• How to Tell Your Boss That You're Not Engaged at Work: "He noticed that organizations tended to overlook the influence that everyday experiences have on people’s work motivation, focusing instead on their talents, skills, and expertise."

• 7 Keys to Success for Women Starting Their Own Business: "If you want to take it seriously you need clarity and passion. Without passion, our dreams become a burden, and burdens get abandoned."

• How the People in My Life Help Me Succeed: "It all starts with who you find to share your life with and who you let in. At work, you want people who are driven, competent, honest and who share similar goals to yours."

• 6 Science-Backed Ways to Make Your Office More Productive: "workplaces with 'positive and virtuous practices' such as mutual care, support and kindness -- and workplaces that inspire and emphasize the meaningfulness of work, as well as emphasize respect and gratitude -- enjoyed greater productivity, performance and customer satisfaction."
• Why Being a Morning Person Will Make You Better at Your Job: "When we make the time to collect ourselves in the morning, we have clarity for the rest of the day, because when we bring a more relaxed presence into our morning hours, it makes everything that happens from there much more manageable."

High 5 Weekly Career Transitions Roundup: Tips for Showcasing Soft Skills on Job Interviews

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!

• Tips for Showcasing Soft Skills on Job Interviews: "As more companies recognize the importance of soft skills, they're becoming more interested in figuring out how candidates will respond to certain scenarios."

• 6 Good Daily Habits for a Fulfilled Life: "My best daily habit is waking up each morning feeling grateful for the opportunity to live another day and have impact on the world around me."

• How the Best Companies for Women Neutralize the Mommy Wars: "Ultimately, I find that most women will say there is gender equality at their firms if an equal amount of sacrifice is required of both men and women, whether they have families or not."

• If Your Team Agrees on Everything, Working Together is Pointless: "What we need is collaboration where tension, disagreement, and conflict improve the value of the ideas, expose the risks inherent in the plan, and lead to enhanced trust among the participants."
• 28 Best Habits to Have in Business: "Considering the difficulties involved with building a notable business, it's important to stay inspired. Find something that inspires you every single day."

High 5 Weekly Career Transitions Roundup: 8 Daily Habits to Build Resiliency

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!

• 8 Daily Habits to Build Resiliency: "Before you hear one yes, you’re going to hear a lot of no’s. Letting all that rejection slide off your back will help you keep moving forward when times get tough."
• The Only 3 Ways to Be More Productive: "As I’ve continued to study successful people and meet individuals I respect and admire, I've learned that courage is undeniably the biggest differentiator."
• 5 Ways to Make Your Office Happier: "Gratitude helps people feel more positive emotions, relish good experiences, improve their health, deal with adversity, and build strong relationships."
• How to Become a Successful Freelancer: "Freelancers sometimes make the mistake of taking on too much work and getting overbooked. From the beginning, make sure you have room in your schedule."
• 9 Things Successful Women Never Do: "If you want to move up, and ahead, you need to confront your fears head-on. Never waste valuable energy trying to avoid them; instead, use mental toughness to manage your thoughts, emotions, and behavior in ways that will set you up for success in business and life."

Daily Leap Career Video of the Week: Successful Women on Breaking the Rules

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 Forbes four self-made women provide advice to aspiring entrepreneurs about breaking rules.

High 5 Weekly Career Transitions Roundup: Getting Fired, Great Jobs for Veterans, and More

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!

• 8 Great Jobs for Veterans in 2016: "An analysis of which positions were well suited to former military personnel looking for new careers."
• 10 Ways Successful People Stay Calm: "90 percent of top performers are skilled at managing their emotions in times of stress in order to remain calm and in control."
• 4 Unconventional Rules for Building a Better Professional Network: "To truly cultivate new ideas and harness the ones that will drive you forward, you need a team of mentors to rid you of your comfort zone."
• Why We Need to Stop Thinking of Getting Fired as a Bad Thing: "The duration for each mission is typically one to three years, and once that time is up, the manager and employee should work together to come up with a new tour of duty, depending on how to best progress the employee’s career."
• 4 Ways Millennial Women Can Boost Their Careers: "This includes speaking up at department meetings, getting involved in a variety of initiatives outside the scope of your job and strengthening ties with allies."

High 5 Weekly Career Transitions Roundup: 13 Things Mentally Strong People Don't Do

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!

• 13 Things Mentally Strong People Don't Do: "It’s futile to wallow in your problems, exaggerate your misfortune and keep score of how many hardships you’ve endured....Self-pity keeps you focused on the problem and prevents you from developing a solution."
• Succeed in New Situations: "According to several studies ... the more questions new employees ask and the more help they seek, the better they perform."
• 5 Tips for Running an Awesome Meeting: "Decide how you can change your meeting planning to only cover subjects that require everyone's input or that affect an entire department."
• 6 Habits to Improve Memory and Boost Brain Health: "Multitasking diminishes mental productivity, elevates brain fatigue and increases stress."
• Is the Workplace Responsible for Lack of Confidence?: "The conclusions of the study were that the current work environment does not provide women with female role models or managerial support and encouragement. It endorses an ideal worker stereotype that doesn’t resonate with most women."

High 5 Weekly Career Transitions Roundup: 5 Things to Stop Doing 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!

© Bellemedia | Stock Free Images & Dreamstime Stock Photos

• 5 Things to Immediately Stop Doing at Work: "You may be so used to trying to knock three things off of your to-do list at once that focusing on a single task seems like a luxury. But ... research from Stanford University has shown that your productivity seriously suffers when you attempt to accomplish too much at the same time."


• 10 Career Lessons You Should Learn by Your 30s: "It’s not always easy to spot the "good eggs" from those who are insincere or who have a bad reputation that could tarnish yours. And if you’ve made professional enemies, their impressions could come back to haunt you later in your career."


• Stop Trying to Please Everyone: "While saying yes to every assignment may initially please senior execs, it usually leaves people over-stressed and inundated with work — a lot of which ends up half-finished or forgotten. In the long run, no one is happy."


• 6 Ways Women Sabotage Their Professional Success: "What message do you want to send? Pay attention to your language, choose your words carefully and for goodness’ sake, do not use minimizing language that takes away the power of your message."


• If You're Not Happy Make a Change: "Simply taking action doesn’t guarantee results ... But if you don’t take action there is only one guarantee, and that is your situation will never improve and you will remain unhappy."

Daily Leap Career Video of the Week: Career Wisdom from Successful Women

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

In the video below, four successful women share some of the best advice they received related to work and career.

High 5 Weekly Career Transitions Roundup: Positive Work Environment, Women and Careers

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

© Bellemedia | Stock Free Images & Dreamstime Stock Photos

• Be the Architect of a Positive Work Environment: "Always start from a place of trusting that your colleagues are capable and competent. Have faith that they will support you as much as you support them. In most cases, people will rise to meet your expectations and trust will continue to blossom naturally."

• 5 Ways Employees Should Prepare for the Workplace of the Future: "Make sure that your social media profiles reflect the best professional version of you, and that your social network reflects your real network."                                                        
• How Women Can Use Friendships to Boost Their Careers: "Friends who are in the same field or are members of a professional organization would be ideally suited to make introductions to other members and professionals, like executives."


• 7 Simple Tips to Grow Your Social Network: "[I]t is not enough to simply create a great profile, you have to join the party and interact with people. The best way to do this is to produce regular up-dates (initially maybe once a day or a few times a week)."


• The Graduation Advice We Wish We'd Been Given: "A great way to be more resilient is to stop comparing yourself to other people, and compare yourself to your own past performance — last week, last month, last year. Are you improving? That's the only question that matters." 

Three questions to help you lean in to work-life balance

Sheryl Sandberg made a splash near the beginning of the year with the release of her book Lean In, her manifesto for women to redefine their career away from a "having it all" mentality to one of personal responsibility and designing a life that allows for both work and family.

The difficulties that face women have long been studied and reported, and a recent poll indicates that women still feel at a disadvantage professionally despite headway they have made and changes in the workplace. Making intentional decisions about one's career is important for anyone but is especially important for women. The tension between professional and personal-life obligations can create a sense of imbalance and unhappiness. Consider the questions below to put clarity and intention around work-life decisions:

What are you willing to compromise and not compromise for work and family? While there is no such thing as perfect balance in one's life, being able to set boundaries and stick to them - whether it is always being home for dinner or achieving a level of professional success - will give you a value-based foundation on which to make your decisions and "draw your line," increasing your life satisfaction.

Where are you feeling supported and not supported? In both your personal and professional life take some time to think about the level of support you feel. Where would you assess it on a scale of one to ten? If it below an eight, consider why it is that way how much of it is environmental or personal? Put yourself in a place of empowerment and design some actions from there.

What would help you achieve more balance in your professional and personal life? Alongside deciding what to compromise and not compromise, consider what choices you can make to help you achieve the balance that you want to achieve. It could be a decision of asking a partner to be more of a presence with family-related chores or it could be that you delegate more time at the office or even work from home. Put a critical eye on how you do things to see if there is any room for adjustment.

While there is no question that the American workplace needs to do more to accommodate women, use these questions to strengthen areas of your life that are weak and to design a life that leads you to feel accomplished personally and professionally.