Are competencies part of our DNA?

by Mitch Byers :: Sunday, October 5, 2008 :: posted in Enhancing Your Career

“Competency” as defined by Richard Boyatzis, a professor of organization behavior, is “an underlying characteristic of an employee which results in effective and/or superior performance.” Lyle and Signe Spencer, in their book, Competency at Work, define competency as “an underlying characteristic that is causally related to…superior performance in a job or situation.”

Job Competencies include different types of thinking, such as Analytical, Conceptual or Strategic - together, these are the components of Critical Thinking. A superior sales person would be particularly strong in Relationship Building, Persuasion, Interpersonal Understanding, and Customer Service Orientation. In training, a superior performer would also have Persuasion skills along with a high level of Integrity and be able to Develop Others. A few more of the 24 job competencies include Organizational Awareness, Organizational Commitment, Initiative and Flexibility. 

At a recent talk at Dallas Baptist University (Frisco Campus), I was ask if “underlying characteristics” are something we learn or something that is part of our DNA. [More…]

Speaker Coop Listing

by Mitch Byers :: Sunday, August 24, 2008 :: posted in News & Events

To help publicize the various career-centric topics I have presented, I have join a great local group call SpeakersCoop.com. The site is billed as a one-stop resource for speaker coordinators. The website connects speaker coordinators with dozens of speakers from North Texas. [More…]

Resource for Millennial Professionals

by Mitch Byers :: Tuesday, July 29, 2008 :: posted in Enhancing Your Career

For the growing number of Millennial professionals, there is a career resource website all about you: Employee Evolution. [More…]

Marketplace Reality: Working Harder AND Smarter

by Mitch Byers :: Sunday, July 27, 2008 :: posted in Enhancing Your Career

With all the talk of our economy sinking into recession, it is time to increase your productivity in the workplace to assure your position is secure.
Mildred Cup writes about emerging trends in the workplace. She shares recent industry research in her article, Taking On More Work Can Benefit You in Tough Times.

• 68 percent of employees say it is a good time to increase workplace responsibility - up 5 percent from last year
• 50% of employees say it is a good time to look for a new job with a higher salary - down 4 percent from last year

[More…]

Interviewing Tips: Your First 60 Seconds

by Mitch Byers :: Thursday, July 24, 2008 :: posted in Interviewing to Win

"Quick, tell me who you are and what you do in less than a minute." This is the topic of Barbara Rose's article, Learn to Sell Yourself in 60 Seconds. A three step strategy is used to develop an effective "elevator pitch":

1. Say who you are
   
2. Say what you do
3. Say why you do it better
   

Rose suggests avoiding generalities like, "I enjoy helping people." [More…]

Interviewing Tips: Career Advice from Carnival of Careers

by Mitch Byers :: Thursday, July 24, 2008 :: posted in Interviewing to Win, News & Events

InterviewRX was featured in Carnival of Careers #7 this week, hosted by Eric Folgate. Carnival of Careers presents the "best and brightest articles and blog posts from some of the most talent career and small business blog authors." Thanks to Eric for choosing my "Law of Six" post for this week's Carnival.
If you are in job transition, this is a GREAT place to visit. Every week you can expect a dozen or more tips, tactics and tidbits that will help you tackle the interview and put you over the top. In the most recent edition, there were three posts that caught my interest.

[More…]

Interviewing Insight: Don't Miss the Tipping Point

by Mitch Byers :: Wednesday, July 16, 2008 :: posted in

Author of nearly a dozen books, Jeffrey Fox shares, “The job interview is a sales call to sell yourself." The goal of the interview is for the hiring company to “buy” you. At which point you receive an offer letter, you have a clear picture of the exact value of the transaction. However, the decision to buy happens long before the offer letter. [More…]

Hiring Tips: Smart People Doing Dumb Things

by Mitch Byers :: Monday, July 14, 2008 :: posted in Selection & Hiring

Malcolm Gladwell, author of The Tipping Point and Blink, was the first speaker at the May 2008 New Yorker Conference. “Stories from the near future” was the theme of the two-day conference. Albeit condensed, here are his words and my comments from his talk regarding the “challenge of hiring in the modern world.”

[More…]

Hiring Tips: Selecting the right performance predictors

by Mitch Byers :: Friday, July 11, 2008 :: posted in Selection & Hiring

Malcolm Gladwell, author of The Tipping Point and Blink, was the first speaker at the May 2008 New Yorker Conference. “Stories from the near future” was the theme of the two-day conference. Albeit condensed, here are his words and my comments from his talk regarding the “challenge of hiring in the modern world.”

[More…]

Job Interview Tips #51: Incorporate the Law of Six to Get Hired

by Mitch Byers :: Tuesday, July 8, 2008 :: posted in Interviewing to Win

In a recent job interview seminar, a participant asked the following question: “Should I send an email or a thank you note?” My response was, “Send both.”

The reason for sending both correspondences is based on the Law of Six, an effective sales conversion model. The goal of the Law of Six is to convert an influential buyer into a client. In the job interview process, you can personalize the Law of Six to convert your influential buyer (the hiring manager) into a client (your boss). [More…]

Announcement: Upcoming 4 week seminar

by Mitch Byers :: Thursday, July 3, 2008 :: posted in News & Events

Today, I met with Katheryn Smith from Career Jump-Start and agreed to provide a series of talks to their members. Their mission is assist job seekers through the entire hiring process. Generally when I give talks, I focus on strategies to deliver powerful career stores based on job-specific competencies. New material will be added for the upcoming 4-week session. [More…]