Daily Leap Career Video of the Week: Do This For 90 Days to Grow in Your Life & 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.

In the video below, Alex Heyne from Modern Health Monk,  describes one change you can make to your life to grow in your life and career. Watch the video for more.

High 5 Weekly Career Transitions Roundup: 8 Simple Words Great Leaders Use Daily

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 Simple Words Exceptional Leaders Use Each & Every Day: "Asking for help shows vulnerability, respect, and a willingness to listen--all are qualities of a great leader. And all are qualities you hope your employees exhibit."

• 7 Effective Ways to Initiate & Cultivate Business Referrals: "It is crucial from the start of any new business relationship, that we establish it to be reciprocal. We must be prepared to ask how we can refer business to others as well."

• The Painful Cycle of Employee Loneliness, and How it Hurts Companies: "loneliness is different from depression, being alone, or feelings of solitude. It has more to do with a person’s quality of social relationships rather than their quantity."

• 8 Tips to Improve Team Collaboration: "If teams are important for your organization, you need to do what you can to facilitate their effectiveness. Make sure open communication exists. Create opportunities for all voices to be heard."
• 4 Tips for Listening (That Even an Extrovert Can Master): "Now, in every meeting, whether I’m with a group or in a 1:1, I make it a point to ask questions instead of make statements. It has drastically changed the dynamic in the room and has allowed me to grow closer with my entire team."

6 Tips For a Successful Business Trip

The good news is your business or the company you work for is doing well and now you’re needed to go to a conference or meet some clients across the country. The bad news is you might not be in charge of your travel logistics and, even if you are, there are always challenges.

Traveling for work can be a great experience but it can also be exhausting and stressful if you’re not careful.

Implement the following tips and, not only will your business trip be a success, but you’ll return home energized.

Stay hydrated. Be sure to drink a lot of water. This will help you stay energized and will also minimize the negative impacts of travel, such as jet lag or infrequent meals.

Get rest. It might be tempting to stay out late enjoying the nightlife in a new city but leave the karaoke for home. Ensuring that you get enough rest will enable you to be at your best in those meetings will clients or help you be more engaging as you network at a conference.

Enjoy the outdoors. Don’t get stuck in a conference hall or a convention center all weekend. It can be easy to avoid fresh air and day light when staying at the hotel hosting all your events. However, our bodies need the sun and it helps our emotional well-being, too, to spend time outside.

Limit the alcohol. Having a drink can help decrease your anxiety and make it easier for you to talk with strangers or new acquaintances, but it can be easy to overdue it. Not only will you feel lousy for the next days’ agenda, but you might discover you’ve said some things you regret.

Make friends. Be sociable and kind to those you encounter, from the taxi driver to the receptionist at the hotel, to the sales manager you have lunch with. These encounters will shape how you experience your trip and will go a long way toward determining the success of your trip and the impact it makes on your company. Kindness is good business.

Expect things to go wrong. Yes, things will go wrong. Prepare to be disappointed. Your flight might be delayed. The hotel shuttle might make you wait longer than you’d like, or you might even miss a meeting. Be prepared for this and don’t let it throw you off for the remainder of your trip. If you adopt a bad attitude it will impact some of the other issues we discussed, making you less interested in traveling again for work in the future.

Daily Leap Career Video of the Week: 12 Rules for 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.

The video below from Productivity Game takes an illustrated look at Jordan Peterson's book 12 Rules for Life, starting with rule one: compare yourself to who you were yesterday. Watch the video for more.

High Five Weekly Career Transitions Roundup: 4 Ways to Spring Clean Your Mental Habits

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!

• 4 Ways to Spring Clean Your Mental Habits: "It’s time to take out the dust rag and clean up your mental china cabinet full of criticism, little slights and anxious moments. It’s easy to hold on to a negative performance review or a scowl on the subway from a stranger. But when you do this, you overlook all of the positive comments that are flowing into your life."

• 4 Ways to Teach Your Kids About Work: "They worry that they aren’t spending enough time with their children, and they’d like to help their children learn from their experience and avoid mistakes they’ve made."

• 4 Questions Every Great Leader Should Be Able to Answer: "A leadership philosophy is, in essence, your operating manual. This is how I think, act, and react. This is how we will work together."

• Complaining is Lethal for Your Productivity & Your Business: "We've all heard that venting helps us release stress and move forward, but science says it's actually hurting our productivity."
• 3 Tips to Have Better Conversations & Reduce Awkwardness: "Having weak social ties was as harmful to health as alcoholism and equivalent to smoking up to 15 cigarettes a day."

Do These 5 Things After You Get Promoted

Let’s imagine a big day coming up when you receive the exciting news from your manager that you’re being promoted. Congratulations!

Now what do you do?

Don’t let that first day pass by without doing the following five things:

Be grateful. Let your manager know that you are appreciative of the opportunity and the recognition and that you intend to continue to do your best. If you feel like the promotion is overdue resist the urge to mention this. Simply be grateful for the opportunity that you’ve been provided at this moment.

Give thanks. Let your colleagues, friends, and mentors know about your promotion and be sure to thank them for the role they played in developing the skills and knowledge that brought you to this moment. You didn’t succeed alone, and you’ll continue to receive the support of these friends and colleagues if you recognize them for assisting your career.

Work hard. Resist the urge to leave work early to celebrate. Instead, continue to demonstrate your commitment to excellence by working hard while supporting and serving your colleagues as opportunities arise throughout the day. You likely will feel a sense of pride and accomplishment over your promotion, as you should, but do not let it impact your performance on the job.

Update your resume. Yes, you read that correctly. Now is a perfect time to update your resume with your new job title, along with a description of your new responsibilities, as you understand them. You don’t want to wait until moments of crisis in your career to scramble to get your resume updated. Do it now when you feel enthusiastic about your new position. Also, be sure to update your LinkedIn profile.

Celebrate. You definitely deserve to celebrate your accomplishment. Enjoy a night out with friends and family and be grateful for your new opportunity.

Handle your promotion more and there will be more to celebrate in the future.

Daily Leap Career Video of the Week: How to Not Waste Money

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 discusses how we waste money on a daily basis without being aware of it. Watch the video for more.

High 5 Weekly Career Transitions Roundup: 5 Strategies for Your Most Productive Workday

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 Strategies for Your Most Productive Workday: "Because of the constant distractions, we have forgotten how to truly engage in 'deep work'—that is, focused thinking where we make meaningful progress on our most impactful projects."

• Reinvigorate Your Career By Taking the Right Kind of Risk: "Figuring out what no one else is doing, and then doing it well, offers the greatest possibility of success, rapid acceleration, and hyper-growth."

• 18 Ways for Digital Nomads to Make Money: "Over the next decade, it’s predicted that 38 percent of the full-time workforce in the U.S. will be remote, and there’s a crop of job sites dedicated to serving this shift to remote jobs and those seeking them."

• 8 Ways Leaders Waste Valuable Time and Energy: "Develop habits and strategies to minimize your access to distraction, keep your focus on the task at hand, and improve your overall ability to concentrate."
• How to Foster a Lifelong Passion For Your Industry: "Magazines and blogs are other resources to help you stay sharp. Even if you know more than the basics of your industry, they'll keep you updated on trends, technology, and news."

5 Practices to Support Our Mental Health at Work

During stressful times on the job or if you’re an entrepreneur and feeling the heat it is critically important to take care of your mental health. Neglecting our mental state leads to fatigue, emotional outbursts, bad decision-making, and more.

But don’t wait until something is wrong before you think about your mental health. By then the damage to your job or career can be done, and in some situations, irreparable.

Implement the following practices to maintain your mental health and to enable you to effectively manage the stresses that will inevitably come.

Develop connections. It is vital to our mental health to engage with others. We are social beings and gain support and energy from our friendships and relationships with colleagues. Schedule regular time to meet with friends, develop new relationships with co-workers, attend networking events, and seek out meet-ups with others who have similar interests. 

Manage expectations. It’s easy to compare our work performance with others and get down on ourselves for failing to measure up but it is important for our mental health to be realistic and focus on our own strengths and weaknesses.

Take vacation time. In addition to ensuring that we get adequate sleep each night, we need to take advantage of our vacation time to allow ourselves to reset and focus anew on the big picture. Stepping away and getting a change of scenery can do wonders for the soul and help a frustrating or cloudy situation become clearer.

Work with a coach or therapist. Sometimes it is necessary to work with a coach to maintain our mental health. A coach or therapist can provide a different perspective and can help us be more effective in our work. Talk to friends or colleagues to get a referral or recommendation.

Find other sources of joy, fun, and satisfaction. Our lives should not just be about the office. We need hobbies and other interests to better enjoy life and to help us maintain our appreciation for the work we do. Often, by engaging with our curiosity for the world outside the office we can gain new insights that we can apply to our working lives and bring new enthusiasm and purpose to our career.

Paying attention to our mental health and applying practices that support us will reduce the stresses in our job, help us manage the inevitable surprises that accompany change, and help us bring consistent energy and intention to our working lives.

Daily Leap Career Video of the Week: 10 Simple Ways to Improve Your Networking Skills

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, Stephan Erdman provides ten tips to improve your networking skills, starting with having a clear goal. Watch the video for more.

High 5 Weekly Career Transitions Roundup: 5 Habits That Will Make You a Better Leader

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 Habits That Will Make You a Better Leader: "A great leader knows that his or her most important task is developing others—teaching people how to think and ask the right questions."

• 13 Inexpensive But Effective Benefits That Keep Employees Happy: "Investing in personal development initiatives for employees at all levels is critical in maintaining a strong workplace culture."

• To Take Charge of Your Career, Start By Building Your Tribe: "Instead of demanding conformity in exchange for safety, such communities keep our working lives exciting and us stable, ultimately helping us master our working lives"

• Leaders Who Make Their Own Luck Do These 5 Things: "Giving employees time to pursue their own projects increases the chance they'll discover something and, because it's their baby, pursue it with the passion that produces lucky results."
• 7 Ways to Reduce Stress When You Are Overwhelmed: "Take the less than five minutes required to do a mind dump. Get everything bothering you out on paper. Write down what's stressing you out, all that you have to do and the other thoughts or ideas occupying your mind."

How to Have a Difficult Conversation with Your Boss

Throughout your career there are times when you need to have a frank conversation with your supervisor. Perhaps you feel you’ve been disrespected in front of your peers, or you’ve been overlooked for a promotion or for an important assignment.

However, confronting your manager about this can be intimidating and so you might put the matter off, increasing your frustration and making it less likely you’ll find resolution on the issue.

Here are several tips for having a difficult, but productive, discussion with your supervisor.

Schedule a meeting. Do not just pop in on your manager and attempt to have a serious conversation unannounced, even if he or she has an open-door policy. You want a good result from the meeting and you’re more likely to get that if you’ve both been able to prepare for the discussion. Therefore, you want to set up a meeting time with your boss, providing a brief purpose for it.

Prepare for the meeting. Be clear about what you want to say and what your desired outcome is for the meeting. If you want a raise you need to be able to succinctly state your case for it, ask for a specific dollar amount or percentage increase, and request a deadline for hearing back about your request. These three steps can serve as a simple outline, regardless of your question or concern.

Be specific. When meeting with your boss, state clearly what the issue or concern is without judging or criticizing your supervisor. Take ownership of the issue and seek to bring about a win-win. For example, if you felt disrespected in front of your co-workers, assume the best of your boss and let him or her know that you experienced the situation as disrespectful rather than stating that your supervisor disrespected you. You are more likely to have a good outcome when you avoid attributing negative intentions and assume the best in your supervisor.

Follow up. Be sure to again thank your manager for taking the time to address a difficult subject and for their willingness to hear your point of view. Also remind your boss of any follow-up necessary and then be sure to follow-through on getting back to him or her at the appointed time.

Learning to address conflicts and concerns with your manager will improve your work experience, make you more effective at your job, and help you develop leadership skills necessary to advance in your career.

Daily Leap Career Video of the Week: 3 Simple Ways to Build Self-Confidence

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, Simon T. Bailey provides three simply, but important, tips for building self-confidence. Watch the video for more.