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.

High 5 Weekly Career Transitions Roundup: 5 Signs You Need to Take a Pause in Your Career

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 You Need to Take a Pause in Your Career: "If someone makes a remark that you're on your phone all the time, or you notice that you can't slip away without checking your email first, you may be getting too much screen time."

• Writing Your Resume When Your Job Title Doesn't Reflect Your Responsibilities: "Use your résumé headline, summary, and brief stories about accomplishments to demonstrate how well you can meet hiring managers’ needs."

• This is What the Best Candidates I Ever Interviewed Had in Common: "I was always impressed with the applicants who listened close enough to what I said to ask an unrehearsed follow-up question."

• 12 Lessons from the 100 Most Creative People of 2017: "artists are infusing entertainment with social impact. In the corporate world too, the human factor is at the core of our advancements."
• 5 Things You Need for a Successful Mindset: "Grit helps us push past the desire to give up, especially when things get rough. Fortunately, it can be learned and continually developed over time."

6 Qualities of Effective Leaders

Leadership is a highly discussed topic, with many good books published each year on the subject. But for those who don't have time to read all those leadership books we've identified six of the top qualities you should strive to cultivate if you want to be a good and effective leader.

1. Effective leaders listen more than they speak. Leadership is not about making great speeches or
telling everyone else how to get the work done. A great leader spends much of his or her time listening to others in an attempt to better understand both the situation at hand and the people involved.

2. Effective leaders praise others instead of themselves. A good leader knows that others are the key to success and praises the members of his team rather than making himself look good. An effective leader is humble and doesn't waste time trying to impress others by constantly promoting his own "individual" successes. Very few successes are "individual."

3. Effective leaders take responsibility instead of passing blame. When things go wrong, as they inevitably will, great leaders take responsibility and acknowledge the mistakes rather than blaming them on others.

4. Effective leaders serve others. Leaders who focus on others, on the team, and work to serve the needs of the team and of customers will generate greater trust and respect. Leadership is about serving others and serving well.

5. Effective leaders lead by example. A good leader knows that she must do the hard work and not simply expect or demand others to work hard. Effective leaders work hard, demonstrate appropriate work-life balance, and show the appropriate way to communicate and treat clients, co-workers, and customers.

6. Effective leaders never stop learning. A great leader understands that he does not possess all knowledge and continues to learn. He or she is curious about the world and about others and strives to continue to learn more about being a better person and a more effective leader.

High 5 Weekly Career Transitions Roundup

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

• Improve Your Networking Skills  -- Right Now: "Try to listen more than you talk, be thoughtful in your interactions and generous with your time when you can."


• How to Have a Year that Matters: "Rugged individualism is nice in theory, but the truth is: if you're going to make a difference, you're probably not going to make it happen all by your lonesome. So who are your mentors and allies, friends and peers? Who's at your back, manning your sails, crewing your boat?"


• How to Be a Career Prepper: "Begin seeking opportunities to meet people who work outside your company and build mutually beneficial long-term relationships. Also begin creating a personal reputation of excellence, on- and off-line."


• 4 Ways to Figure Out Your Future: "For one week, invest an hour every day to research. Check out top job lists, browse career exploration sites, or just read your favorite section of the newspaper. Your goal? Write down any career that catches your attention. This exercise can stretch your vision of what opportunities actually exist."


• Why You're Not a Leader: "True leadership isn’t found seeking the spotlight, but seeking to shine the spotlight on others. The best leaders only use 'I' when accepting responsibility for failures. Likewise, they are quick to use 'we' when referring to successes." 

Are You Forgetting the Importance of Listening?

It seems as though we spend our lives preoccupied these days. How often do you see two people sitting at a dinner table both looking at their smart phones? Whether we are distracted by our phones, our problems, or too focused on what we want to say next, many of us could stand to take a deep breath, focus, and follow these rules of listening better.

Be Present and Attentive
Put down the cell phone, turn off the ringer, and promise yourself you will not look around the room at other people when listening. Take a moment before you start a conversation, take a deep breath, and make a conscious decision to be an active participant in the conversation. Don't be preoccupied with how the other person wants you to react. Be yourself and react with authentic emotions.

Listen as an Equal
When having a conversation with someone, what they often want most of all is a sounding board or an ear. Don't approach the conversation as though you are an expert - or someone above them - who needs to fix their problem. Try to approach conversations without an agenda or a plan in mind which will often taint what we hear and how we hear it.

Confirm What You Hear
Ask questions to clarify what you hear, ask the person to elaborate or explain, and confirm what you hear by stating what you heard. By actively listening to the other person and providing immediate confirmation of what you are hearing, and whether you are hearing correctly, you can clear up any misunderstandings before they grow into bigger issues.

Actively Listening: Your Key to Interview Success

Hearing what someone is saying is very different than truly listening with focused attention. As a job seeker, this difference can impact how well you do in interviews. Were you able to concentrate and process the information shared in the interview? How well can you recall and understand the information after the interview? Job seekers and interviewers share equal responsibility for facilitating effective two-way communication, and one important factor is active listening.

Barriers to Active Listening

Several things can get in the way of active listening. One, in particular, is common in interview situations—anxiety. During an interview, anxiety may cause your mind to race with worrisome thoughts that tug at your attention. Did I answer the last question correctly? Does the interviewer think I sound overly confident? And, if you have a tendency to be a talker, you may not be allowing ample time to really listen to what the interviewer is asking before jumping in with your response.

Listening with Focus

Before you step into your next interview, be mindful that focused listening takes a conscious effort. From the moment the interview starts, tune in immediately. Take a deep breath, make eye contact, establish good posture, and let your body language communicate that the interviewer has your full attention. If you realize your attention is starting to stray, do your best to focus on what is being said. Approach the interview with an open mind, and don’t spend time judging the interviewer or your own performance. Let the interviewer finish talking, and then take a few seconds to pause and process before responding.

Active listening fosters learning and demonstrates goodwill and respect for the interviewer and the interviewer’s time. It also enables you to respond with relevant answers and insightful comments or questions. Effective listening is a key piece in getting you to the next interview step.