High 5 Weekly Career Transitions Roundup: 5 Techniques to Increase Your Motivation

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 Techniques to Increase Your Motivation: "Without a powerful motive, no goal can withstand misfortune. You can create motive by taking time every day to visualize your goal in detail."

• The Importance of Face-to-Face Networking in a Digital World: "The value of face-to-face networking is being recognized as one of the most powerful tools available for increasing one’s personal exposure, creating meaningful relationships and providing growth opportunities at a personal and professional level."

• 7 Common Words Powerful People Avoid (That You Should Avoid, Too): "The word 'just' diminishes the content that follows this word. It is a “protector” word, a word that softens what you want to achieve."

• 4 Easy Ways to Reboot Your Relationship With Your Boss This Year: "Your manager might not be able to weigh in on every project you tackle, but every boss is on the lookout for people who can think in ways that positively impact the organization, both inside and out."
• What to Do When Your Boss Says No: "A 'no' gives you the opportunity to prove to others that you can find creative solutions to deliver quality work with less."

Creating a Terrific Elevator Pitch

At an industry networking event, you’ve managed to meet a person of influence who happens to work for one of your prospective target employers. You have just a few captive minutes to make a positive first impression and to pitch why you would be a great addition to that organization. With some advance planning and practice, you can be prepared and ready to shine.

Let the ideas flow: Emphasizing action verbs, write down what you do in several different ways. Describe what you do for others. Use language to create a visual and combine the best thoughts together. Rather than “I am a marketing manager in the automotive industry,” say, “I understand the intricacies of the automotive market and create ideas and solutions for decision makers.” Remember to ask yourself, “Why am I making this pitch and what do I want from it?” Maybe you want a formal interview, a referral, or an exchange of business cards. Be sure to specify what you want.

Tell a story: Using those action verbs and keeping your goal in mind, weave what you do into a short story. This is not the time to rattle off your resume. Instead, leave your audience with a memorable snapshot of the best you have to offer.

Practice and record: Practice and record your pitch until it sounds natural, making improvements as you go. Timing your pitch is also important, as you will want to keep it between 30 and 60 seconds.

Make sure you come across as likeable and credible. Leave your audience wanting to hear more.

Get By With a Little Help From Your Profs

Ask any successful professional the secret to her success and I will wager that you will not hear "I did it on my own." We all need a support system - a personal "board of directors," if you will - and a mentor is a crucial part of it. A mentor is someone who has specialized experience in the work field that you are interested in entering and who agrees to help nurture your success. The key phrase in that last sentence is in the work field that you are interested in entering. It differentiates a mentor from a coach (the latter being a topic for a different blog post).

College professors have the potential to be wonderful mentors: they are most definitely experts in their fields through their academic backgrounds and research, and the cultivation of young minds is their forte. How would you approach one of your college professors to be a mentor to you?

• Be familiar: a mentor relationship is best cultivated with someone with whom you already have a relationship. If you do not have one, create one by becoming engaged academically and studying your field outside of class.

• Be intentional: meet with your professor during her office hours and express that you are interested in creating a mentorship relationship with her. State why you've asked her in particular and what you hope to get out of the relationship. Furthermore, show genuine reciprocity by asking what you can do for her.

• Be resilient: professors are very busy, so do not be surprised or discouraged by a reply of "thanks, but no thanks." Simply seek out others with similar qualifications who can assist you with your career.

Value of Face-to-Face Communication

A strong business case has been made for using web conferences, video conferences, and other technologies to achieve significant cost savings and flexibility for employers and their employees. However, there is still much research and discussion to support the value and preference for face-to-face business communication. According to the Forbes Insight Survey, 87 percent of the 750 business executives surveyed said they prefer face-to-face communication to virtual meetings.

Here are a few key advantages of face-to-face communication, as it relates to the workplace setting.

In-person meetings go deeper. Sitting across from others and making eye contact provides greater insight into how they are reacting to the information you’re discussing. Direct eye contact also fosters trust. Face-to-face communication is vital in the give-and-take required when dealing with complex business communications. These meetings are particularly beneficial for negotiating, persuading, consensus-building, and decision-making.

Stronger relationships develop. Spending time over dinner or at the café provides a unique opportunity to cement meaningful relationships with clients and maintain productive relationships with co-workers. By getting to know your clients and colleagues on a personal level, you will be more apt to build stronger bonds.

Body language counts. You are in a stronger position to gauge reactions when you meet, greet, and shake hands. Using all five senses is a more accurate way for “reading” another person.

In data-oriented presentations or cases where vast amounts of information are being disseminated, video or web conferences may be the way to go. The bottom line, though, is that you should think of technology as a tool, rather than as a replacement for face-to-face communication. That way, you are in a better position to discern which type of communication will more effectively serve your business needs.