Have You Got the 10 Traits of a Top Billing Recruiter

Have You Got the 10 Traits of a Top Billing Recruiter The top billers in the recruitment industry possess a number of key characteristics that prime them for success. So have you got what it takes? Our list runs down those essential traits that will take you to the top!  1) Communication skills:  All sales roles rely on excellent communication skills, and as a recruiter you need to be an excellent listener, and speaker. The biggest billers really hear what they are being told, from both client and jobseeker, and often pick up on different messages using both overt and subconscious cues. Big billers use questioning to find the information that they need to serve their customers, and know how to communicate verbally and in writing, to a high standard.  2) Relationship building:  Linked to the point above, the top billers prioritise their client and working relationships, and spend time nurturing them. By knowing their stakeholders, great recruiters can ensure they deliver whats required of them, and they build up loyalty and a great reputation in the process.  3) Confidence:  Watch any big biller walk into the room and you will know about it. You dont need to be loud, overt or egotistical, but you will walk with confidence, speak with authority, and have an attitude that you are there to help others achieve their aims, and to serve clients to the best of your ability. Confidence in your abilities will inspire others to trust you, and give you their business.  4) Delivery focus:  Big billers know that they are only as good as their last hire. They will value quality delivery and prioritise it ensuring that their clients are delighted with their work and ready to trust further assignments to their care. A great recruiter will always deliver to the best of their ability and aim to exceed client expectations. They will know that their reputation is the most important thing they possess and being reliable is essential to maintain it.  5) Marketing abilities:  It is essential to be able to promote and market your services and skills effectively, showcasing your knowledge and demonstrating your ability to add value to the recruitment relationship. To be as good as a big biller, you need to hone your selling, negotiation and convincing skills to build up a client base, and win great business. Remember, marketing applies to an attitude as well as a range of activities. Consider how your market yourself in every interaction from the way you present yourself with your dress, handshake and business card to the way you follow up on client meetings with a thoughtful note, client entertaining or other value-add activities to position yourself in the forefront of the clients mind.  6) Target driven:  Those big earners focus on their targets and aim to exceed them. They view targets as a challenge and a starting point, and find pride and excitement in smashing them! Most big billers will set themselves additional stretch targets and increasingly focus their attention on the most profitable business, rather than automatically chasing every lead that comes their way. Naturally, they will think strategically, prioritising those relationships which look set to have long-term value, rather than worrying overly about short-term wins.  7) A proactive attitude:  No recruiter will find success if they wait for work to fall into their laps. The most successful in the industry will constantly be seeking out profitable new relationships, developing key clients, and using their time in valuable ways. They wont waste time surfing the net or idling on LinkedIn they will be out there, meeting with clients, meeting with jobseekers, networking and marketing their services to prospects. Crucially, they will do a vast majority of their business face to face, and never hide behind databases or social media.  8) Hard graft:  Great recruiters are dedicated and dont avoid the tough stuff. Whether that involves cold calling, working a room or setting appointments, they are constantly putting in the work needed to be successful, rather than waiting for someone to do it for them! You will often see the most successful recruiters starting work and finishing before the majority of the team not because they are falling behind in their work, but because they are committing to getting the job done and to staying ahead of the pack! Hard graft, particularly at the start of your career, will pay dividends later on once you are established and have an excellent reputation to trade on.  9) Personal skills:  Great recruiters will be able to multi-tasks, manage their time, be patient, and work quickly. They will use systems and processes to organise themselves and prioritise work. They will avoid time wasting and low-value tasks, and make sure they have a clear plan for each working day. Smart recruiters will also work effectively in teams and use the resources that they have at their disposal, directing their time and effort towards the highest value activities and accounts to make the best use of their energy.  10) Digital awareness:  Modern recruitment does require a degree of computer literacy which can put ambitious young recruiters ahead of the pack. Smart professionals in the field employ a variety of social media recruitment approaches and techniques across a range of platforms, blending on and offline activity to achieve intended objectives. Author:  Satnam Brar is Managing Director of  Maximus IT. Maximus is an Oracle Gold Partner which specialises in recruitment in the ERP, CRM Database sectors, specifically ORACLE, MS Dynamics, Salesforce.com and SAP.

The Skills Gap Exists But Not Where You Think It Does

The Skills Gap Exists But Not Where You Think It Does Sponsored by LiveCareer “We’ve got a real skills gap problem here!” It’s the biggest cliché in HR practice today. And it’s a doozie. Mention the words “skills gap” and you can stop a serious hiring strategy discussion cold in its tracks. Yet behind the cliché lies a vicious cycle. Employers cannot find enough skilled workers, let alone enough top talent. Jobseekers have invested many years of their lives in school only to end up with little hope of any real payoff. More and more workers are finding that their skills fit fewer and fewer jobs. And others simply do not have the background or experience for the work that is available to them. It’s an enormous problem that affects the entire economy. It shuts good people out of good jobs, keeps good companies from growing, and gums up the entire labor market. Every thought leader has some clever spin on who’s really at fault. Every software vendor claims they have a killer app for hacking the job market. And every policy wonk has a grand plan for a massive public initiative. But no one’s got an answer for the people who bear the brunt of the problem â€" jobseekers and hiring organizations. They are the ones that can’t find each other, and both suffer as a result. They don’t need any more smart talk from someone with no skin in the game. They need practical solutions to find each other efficiently, so both can start making money. Whenever two people meet on the job market, there is a gap already present Everyone agrees that something is broken. Yet almost everyone assumes the skills gap problem lies with job market inputs or resources, which is why education and technology get so much of the blame. And that assumption just ends up with the same old dead-end debate and solves nothing. New research published by LiveCareer in their 2018 Skills Gap Report takes a fresh approach: Yes, there is a problem. But our guess is that it lies not with the structure of the job market, but rather the market behavior of its key players. It turns out we were right. The real skills gap is the void between the skills jobseekers say they are offering on their resumes and the skills employers say they want in their job advertisements. Friction gets created right where jobseekers and employers first engage each other in the job market. And they start off already talking past each other. The gap only gets wider. Neither has enough good information about each other to know how to transact wisely. Therefore, jobseekers will just resume bomb, and whoever does candidate screening will revert to personal biases rather than stick with valid selection criteria. It all just spirals down from there. No amount of government spending, job training programs, or education-work partnerships can fix that. They likely have the skills but need to mind the gap Let’s dive into the actual research. LiveCareer took a big data approach, analyzing several thousands of resumes and job ads across 12 separate occupations. Together, those 12 occupations account for one-quarter of all occupational categories in the U.S. labor market. Natural Language Processing was used to help understand the actual language jobseekers and employers use in the job market, what they mean by it, and what value it represents. This is the hard currency both use to negotiate the deal that closes with, “you’re hired!” What was discovered were the right ingredients for candidates and employers to not find each other. For starters, the number of skills jobseekers put on their resumes and the number of required skills employers list in their job ads don’t even come close to matching up. On average, job ads list 22 different skills they require of candidates, while jobseekers include only 13 skills on their resumes. And it just gets worse when trying to sync up with actual skills. Jobseekers match only 59 percent hard skills and 62 percent of soft skills on their resumes compared with what employers list in their job ads. The greatest skills gaps were multitasking, retail industry knowledge, positive attitude, and physical demand. We also found that employers value soft skills quite highly, more so than jobseekers seem to realize. Soft skills typically make up between one-quarter and one-half of the skills appearing in job ads. Interestingly, tech-centric jobs require essentially the same soft skills as soft-centric jobs. The soft skills employers valued most were customer service and communications skills. Six practical takeaways for employers and job ad writers Avoid rigid, rote-automated keyword analysis when screening resumes Allow for greater nuance in keyword searches Don’t turn your job ad into a data dump Be careful not to list skills that are in any way redundant Give examples of how your current employees apply the skills you are requiring Be very consistent with your employer branding content. But the most important takeaway from the study is that the skills gap is not homogenous and one-dimensional. It affects each industry and job category differently. Hiring organizations cannot hope to address it successfully through any kind of broad brush solution. But they can start to pinpoint where they are misconnecting with good candidates, and how they can start attracting more resumes from the ones they really want. Additional findings, plus a downloadable version of the report, are available via the 2018 Skills Gap Report link above. About the author: Since 2005,  LiveCareer’s  team of career coaches, certified resume writers, and savvy technologists have been developing career tools that have helped over 10 million users write persuasive cover letters, develop better interview skills, and write resumes via their free, easy-to-use Resume Builder.

Top 5 Mobile Recruiting Mistakes Recruiters Make

Top 5 Mobile Recruiting Mistakes Recruiters Make Humans, take note: believe it or not, we’re actually becoming outnumbered by cell phones and tablets. By 2016, researchers at Cisco predict that the world’s population will be surpassed by the number of mobile devices. Whether or not robots end up taking over the world, one thing is for sure â€" almost everyone owns a mobile device. In fact, Nielsen research shows that 91 percent of adults have a smartphone within reach at all times. As the world rapidly becomes more mobile-centric, job seekers have certainly adapted, with over 43 percent of them using devices to search for openings. But if almost half of job seekers are leveraging mobile, wouldn’t you think recruiters would be too? After all, the talent market is competitive, and recruiters are constantly on the lookout for their next quality hire. Despite the demand, recruiters haven’t learned how to take advantage of mobile recruiting the right way just yet. Here are five common mobile recruiting faux pas â€" and how to avoid them. Mistake #1: Failure to get a grip. Most recruiters don’t realize it, but we’re in the midst of some serious changes â€" and if you want to succeed, understanding the lay of the land is first priority. So what exactly does mobile recruiting look like? First things first: it’s convenient, and fast. For job seekers on the job hunt, mobile makes shopping for new positions possible at every point of a busy day â€" in line at Starbucks, on the commute home or even in the restroom (ahem, 7% of you). Plus, mobile has essentially all of the capabilities that desktop does, which allows job seekers to browse search engines and social media sites like Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn. With so many job seekers using mobile technology, companies are expected to meet them halfway. Millennials, in particular, are hoping for some extra convenience: 37 percent of them expect mobile-optimized career sites. Make sure you understand the mobile landscape before you map out your strategy. Without a proper grasp on what’s going on in the space, you could be missing out on your next best candidate. Mistake #2: No mobile career site. The beauty of mobile is the tailored experience. But if companies aren’t offering a mobile-centric career site, chances are they’ll get far less applications through mobile. If you’ve ever suffered the inconvenience of having to turn your phone every which way to display a non-converted site, you’ll know â€" it’s a pain. With 30 percent of mobile users abandoning sites after 6-10 seconds if they haven’t loaded, you might have to say goodbye to some potentially great applicants. And that’s assuming your site actually works. If you don’t have the correct tools, file types and software components to assist your mobile visitors, the whole experience is a wash. A staggering 80 percent of businesses today don’t have either a mobile app or a mobile site, which risks alienating, irritating and scaring prospects away. Make sure your mobile application process is compatible with both Android- and iOS-friendly devices, and don’t forget about your employment brand. A seamless experience â€" that looks and feels like your company brand â€" helps foster confidence and loyalty among candidates. Mistake #3: Difficult mobile application process. Once you’ve decided on your mobile strategy, how do you know how far to take it? Between listing job openings and company culture updates, there are dozens of different routes you could take with mobile recruiting. But think about it: if you were heading up an e-commerce business and your mobile site offered a comprehensive catalog but no purchasing option, how successful do you think you’d be? Exactly â€" if you don’t take it all the way, what’s the point? The same goes for mobile recruiting. Candidates now expect the entire end-to-end application process to be available on mobile. They don’t just want to search for jobs on mobile anymore; they want to apply to them too â€" whenever and wherever they are, so make sure you meet them halfway. To really give people what they’re looking for, keep application content simple and tailored to match the convenience of mobile. Beat excessive scrolling by minimizing required clicks and form length, and leverage cameras and social networking apps to bring in mobile-first resources. But don’t forget: it’s not all or nothing. Some candidates might be ready to submit a full application from their mobile devices, and others might not be â€" just be aware of different needs and implement features to help users at every step of the process. Mistake #4: Neglect for the hiring manager. Let’s face it: every recruiter is looking to make the hiring process more efficient. While some organizations forget that recruiting is a two-way street, a successful mobile strategy necessitates a compatible ATS on the backend. If your system isn’t accessible via smartphone or tablet, it will undoubtedly decrease productivity for everyone. When deciding how to approach mobile, make sure your strategy works for job seekers, recruiters and hiring managers. Enable your HR team to respond to requests and move candidates through via mobile, so they can send offer letters and increase productivity no matter where they are. As they say, technology is only as effective as its users allow it to be, so train your managers to take advantage of new mobile features as they come. Mistake #5: Being blinded by technology. The idea of innovating on mobile is all well and good, but it’s tough to know where to start â€" and if a start is even possible. When recruiters are used to dealing with outdated technology or an out-of-sync system, chances are that it’s hard to imagine the potential of a seamless transition to mobile. But anyone can be successful on the mobile channel if they’re realistic. Oftentimes, even if you don’t have the budget for a full-scale mobile career site, there’s a quick-fix solution available. Try building a more basic mobile page, so you can still pay attention to your mobile presence without breaking the bank. Some companies even start with an e-Newsletter opt-in, so recruiters can start building talent pools before diving in headfirst. Whether you like it or not, mobile is becoming more ubiquitous than ever before, and your company can’t afford to ignore the opportunity that lies in mobile job seekers. With the many potential candidates waiting on mobile â€" no matter their generation â€" mastering mobile recruiting starts with reaching the right people, at the right time, on the right channel. Author:  Kimberley Kasper, CMO of Jobvite

The best way to deal with getting fired

The best way to deal with getting fired Yesterday I was on the phone with Rachel Mendleson, from Canadian Business. She is writing an article about how to quit a job without burning bridges. She wants me to give people advice about not burning bridges. I tell her I think the topic is stupid. I tell her everyone knows that advice already. She says, What about the blog post you wrote 9 Tips for Quitting a Job Gracefully? Do you think that information is no longer right? Oh. I forgot about that, I say. But its old. Its a boring topic now. What about your number-seven tip: about how you shouldnt do an exit interview? Yeah. People shouldnt do that. Im sorry to be difficult. Why dont you just copy and paste what I wrote about exit interviews into your story? I used to do that when I was a columnist at the Boston Globe just lift stuff and quote people. Its so much faster than real interviews. I dont do that. Oh. Okay. Sorry. Sorry. Okay. Im going to try to be more helpful. Heres a quote for you: Quitting a job is a networking event. Its about making sure you bring your old co-workers into the fold of your network before you leave. What are tips for doing that? How did you come up with this story anyway? Is it your bosss idea? Tell him its an outdated idea. You should just write an article about how to network. Its a more interesting topic. Everyone knows not to burn bridges but they dont know what else to do. Tell your boss that the story should have a more positive bent anyway. Silence. Youre not going to tell your boss that, are you? No. Okay. Im sorry to be so difficult. [Note: Its true, that I am sorry. But also, did you see this post from Fred Wilson at Union Square Ventures about how being difficult is good? He says venture capitalist love investing in brilliant entrepreneurs who are difficult to get along with. No fewer than ten people forwarded that blog post to me, probably because Im difficult to get along with, but hopefully also because Im brilliant. While I was feeling unable to be accommodating during this interview I kept telling myself its okay because people fund my companies.] Rachel says, One thing I was thinking about is if the same rules apply to people who have been laid off. Oh. Thats a great topic! I should write about that topic. So what do you think about it? People who are laid off and people who get fired should follow the same rules as people who quit. You should just act like you quit. The world does not need to hear what the terms of departure are. People just want to know what you are doing with your life and how you fit in with them. I can hear, over the phone, that Rachel starts taking notes. I cant remember what I said after that. After the call, I kept thinking that she thought of a great topic. So Im writing it myself. How to quit a job youve already been fired or laid off from. (And, by the way, there is not a difference between getting fired or laid off because in both cases you are not going to talk about how you got dumped. You will reframe the story.) 1. Make a quick and essential mental shift. Tell yourself that you werent forced out, you left. You must believe this in order to create a cogent, believable story about your life. And, its true. Because it doesnt matter who decided first that youre a bad fit. Just because you decide second that its time to move on doesnt mean you didnt decide it. So, you have control of your life. You have vision for your life. And you decided that its time to move on. The stories you tell yourself about your life are essential to your self-image. 2. Frame the departure as you taking a risk. People respect risk-taking in the name of figuring out how to create a stable life. (Which, actually, is why most people take risks it has to do with their perception of what their own stability will eventually look like. People dont generally take risks in order to mess up their lives.) So figure out what you want to do next, and then explain to people that your departure is a risk you took to help you get what you want. 3. Leave it off your resume if you can. Any job that sucks, whether you were fired or you quit, is not going to help you on your resume. So if it was for a short amount of time, that wont create a gap that raises eyebrows, just leave it off your resume. When people ask what you were doing during that time period, talk about something you do in life that is rewarding and engaging that you do outside of work. Its perfectly fine to talk about that instead of a job you got fired from. After all, your resume is not your life story. Your resume is a list of your achievements. Keep it that way. 4. Decide to choose gratitude over bitterness. One of the greatest things I ever did was write a thank-you note to a boss who fired me. I managed a quality assurance department comprised of 17 guys and one woman. So I really looked out for the woman. I got fired for favoring her. I probably got fired for other stuff, but the documentation was about favoritism. At first, I was incredulous that this could really happen. But my boss had given me opportunities to learn and grow, so I wrote him a thank you note upon my departure. Being kind to people makes us be kinder to ourselves. So be kind to people when you get fired. It will shock them, in a good way. (Not that I do this every time. When I got fired from Yahoo, instead of a thank-you note, I wrote a blog post.) 5. Ask yourself: What would Oprah do? If you are not sure about how to handle yourself when you get fired or laid off, look at how someone like Oprah who famously quit her job. Make a mental shift to thinking that you quit, and focus on tips for quitting, and then everything starts to become clear yes, you send an email giving people your new contact info, you talk about how youre really excited to about doing something new. Everyone gets laid off or fired at some point. Its how well you bounce back that defines who you are.

Teacher Assistant Resume Writing Tips - Why It Is Important To Provide Some Educational Training On Your Resume

Teacher Assistant Resume Writing Tips - Why It Is Important To Provide Some Educational Training On Your ResumeThe main difference between a typical teacher assistant resume and the resume for a teacher assistant should be in how they are written. A typical teacher assistant resume will typically contain only a brief biography of the candidate and who they are applying to. What this will not do is list any educational training that the candidate has had.On the other hand, a true teaching assistant resume should be written with educational information included as well as any work experience. Some of the information that should be included on a teacher assistant resume is: the student or former student's name; the student's address; their phone number; their parent's name; their date of birth; their instructor's name; any work schedule that the candidate has held; the teacher's name; their supervisor's name; their grade level; the grade history of the student; whether the student has b een transferred to another school; the student's writing skills; whether the student has been evaluated by the school district; whether the student has held positions as a teacher in the district; the student's performance statistics during the term; whether the student has ever received sanctions. This can all be provided as part of a separate job description.Although most states do not require you to provide any type of teaching experience, some states also mandate that teachers must provide any experience that they have in professional development activities, which include training, seminars, etc. Please do not underestimate the importance of providing this information on a teacher assistant resume.Teachers at various schools should make it a point to check their school files for relevant information. If you haven't checked your school files yet, do so today. You may be surprised.When writing your resume, include the full name of the person whom you are attempting to hire. There is nothing wrong with including both of their first and last names in the resume.Be sure to supply all the dates of employment that you have given in your resumes. It is important to verify these dates and supply them.In your resume, indicate the name of your employer. It is important to include the full name of the person whom you are attempting to hire and that you are the employee of the employer. You can use this information to help facilitate the hiring process.Making an appointment to meet with potential employers is a great way to start the process. When you are meeting with them, ask any questions that you may have in regards to the process and what they are looking for in a potential employee.

How Your Resume Can Sell You - Hire Imaging

How Your Resume Can Sell You - Hire Imaging Though you should often customize your resume to a posted position, this doesn’t mean trying to package yourself differently for different employers. Be straight-forward; show your achievements, rationale behind them, and impact. Telling the truth openly, voluntarily, and impressively is the key. The more you tell, the more you sell! Here are some things to keep in mind: Consider tight paragraphs. The two common approaches to presenting your work history are paragraphs, with each job written up as a mini-essay; or bullets, sentence fragments preceded by a raised dot. The latter is often used by advertising copywriters to make every point seem a highlight. While either style is acceptable, I like tight, specifically-written paragraphs to tell a story. Sentences in a paragraph are easier to comprehend and believe, because they closely resemble what we see in books, memos, and other informational writing. Bullets resemble advertising copy. Sentences in paragraphs also enable you to use transition phrases and conjunctions that connect the various statements in ways that serve you better than a series of unrelated exclamations. It’s helpful to say, “In recognition of my leadership on that project, was promoted to …” or “After consolidating these three acquisitions …” You get the gist. I do think that bullets can serve as short testimony to successes that came out of the story in paragraph. Make your resume factual and concrete. Familiarize your reader with specifics. For each leadership position or collaborative contribution, orient your reader to the size, nature, and trend of (1) the larger unit in which you participated and (2) the part of it you were responsible for. What was the size of your operation in people, sales, and profit? What was its directive? The general business climate around it? The problems and opportunities you identified? The strategies you came up with? And the results you achieved? Use numbers whenever possible. Focus on quantifiable data. Give dollar figures for sales, profits, ROI, costs, inventories, etc. before and after your initiatives were implemented. When you use percentages, try to give the base plus any comparative figures on the rest of the industry or another part of your company that will show your numbers are exceptional. Avoid empty words and statements. Omit self-praising adjectives like “major,” “substantial,” and others. Wherever a word is justified, a number will be far more persuasive. Avoid over-generalized statements like, “Responsible for managing the strategic technical issues impacting the company’s ongoing core business.” What do you do all day? What’s your budget? Whom do you report to and who reports to you? How has your employer benefited from having you around? Create a mosaic. Think of those pictures that are comprised of tiny colored stones. Imagine that each promotion to a new job, each numerical improvement, each specific point of analysis and strategy is a stone. When assembled together in the right order, these fragments will be connected by your reader into an image of you. Don’t assert what the shape of it is. Just lay out enough specific facts â€" stone by stone â€" so your reader will see his or her picture in his or her own mind. The most important ingredients of a resume are time and thought. Decide what facts will prove you get great results, and state those facts in a distilled, clear way. You’ll face competing candidates. There are naysayers who profess that resumes don’t really matter anymore. That’s true of generic, kitchen-sink, this-could-be-anyone-in-the-industry resumes. But a resume that truthfully shows your past performance and shares your success stories in outperforming others does matter! I always love to hear from you! Please comment below.

How to deal with anger at work - The Chief Happiness Officer Blog

How to deal with anger at work - The Chief Happiness Officer Blog Heres an interesting question that I got yesterday: My husband and I are currently sitting on the sofa, enjoying our day off and writing down our goals for 2008. While doing so, my husband has brought up the topic of work. Here is his statement in a nutshell: I think you are very angry about work in general and need professional help. In searching for help, I came across your website. Heres my question: after being laid off in September and being forced to change careers from the mortgage industry to a more secure industry is there help out there for dealing with the anger I now have because I was forced to change careers at 39 years old and what can I do in the meantime so that my anger doesnt spill into my new career? Thank You, Yvonne This question is interesting for many reasons, most notably because this is obviously making Yvonne unhappy at work in her new job. If its come to the point where her husband believes she needs professional help, its probably also affecting her at home. Also, Yvonne is far from alone. A lot of people face major changes at work. When they are laid off, when their company is bought by a competitor or when major reorganizations fundamentally change their working conditions. Large scale change has become a fact of corporate life and many of us react to it by getting mad. Below youll find my top 5 tips for dealing with anger when when youre going through major change at work. I apologize in advance for venturing maybe a little too close to therapy-land in this post. I honestly dont want to go all Dr. Phil on you guys, but dealing with anger is not possible without taking a look at what goes on inside your head. OK? OK! 5 steps for dealing with anger at work Step 1: Accept that being angry is perfectly natural When were faced with large changes in life and at work, we all have to go through the grief cycle, which has the following stages: Denial: The initial stage: It cant be happening. Anger: Why me? Its not fair. Bargaining: Just let me live to see my children graduate. Depression: Im so sad, why bother with anything? Acceptance: Its going to be OK. Im honestly not sure how scientifically established this model is, but I certainly find it very useful in the work I do with organizations that are going through major change. Last year, I did some work with a branch of the Danish Tax Authority an organization that has gone through enormous change and reorganization in the last year. When I presented a simplified version of this model to them, I could see people breathing sighs of relief. One participant even exclaimed NOW you tell us! Many of them had been angry or depressed about these changes, but nobody had told them that this is normal. Consequently, many of them felt bad about what they were feeling which of course only made them more angry or depressed. Its important to accept your own anger as perfectly OK. Being angry is hard enough. Being angry while telling yourself I really mustnt be angry is infinitely worse :o) This does not give you blanket permission to throw tantrums right and left it just means that being angry is OK, not that every display of anger is allowed. Step 2: Find out what your anger does for you good or bad What does being angry do for you? Think back to previous situations where you have been angry at work and ask yourself how it affects eg.: You Your relationships with co-workers The quality of your work Your energy Your well-being and health How you feel outside of work Your relationships with friends and family For each of these, include both the good and the bad. Maybe being angry gives you a lot of clout and influence on the job but it also means that co-workers tend to avoid you. Maybe being angry feels stressful but it also saves you from being taken advantage of at work. And here is a crucial question: What other emotions, questions and doubts are you free from dealing with because youre angry? When your anger consumes you, which other painful or difficult considerations are you free from thinking about? What would you have to feel/think about/deal with/do something about if you were not angry? Step 3: Find out what makes you angrier and less angry What makes you angrier? Which thoughts, situations, people, conversations set you off? Conversely, what makes you less angry? Im sure youre not angry every second of every day :o) What gives you peace or at least distracts you from the anger? Find out then start doing less of what makes you angry and more of the things that calm you down. Step 4: Focus on gratitude What are you grateful for? As I mentioned above, anger is part of the grief cycle which is associated with loss. Gratitude is the polar opposite of loss, because it obviously comes from the good things you have in your life. Its simple. Every evening, sit down with a piece of paper (and maybe a glass of wine) and make two gratitude lists: 3 things I was grateful for at work today 3 things I was grateful for in life today It can be big things or small things obvious stuff or weird stuff. Whatever makes you feel happy and grateful. If you need some inspiration, check out Scott Nutter who has been doing daily gratitude posts on his blog for 334 days running now. Step 5: Shift your focus from What was done to me to What I can do I know, I know this is the basic staple of all self-help advice. As in When life gives you lemons make lemonade. As in Life is 10% about what happens to you and 90% about how you deal with it. As in You must take responsibility for your own situation, rather than be a victim of. That kind of advice can get pretty nauseating. But that doesnt make it any less true. 3 things NOT to do There are also some things you should avoid doing. 1: Dont vent Common knowledge holds that when youre angry, you should vent to get it off your chest. Interestingly, studies indicate that venting just makes us even angrier. 2: Dont try to justify your anger When youre feeling angry dont waste time and energy justifying it either to yourself or others. Well that guy was a jerk at the staff meeting and the way I was treated in the last reorg was totally unfair and my manager still hasnt apologized and some guy cut me off in traffic on the way home and Youre angry, thats enough. You dont have to list all the reasons why youre angry. Again, that just makes you even angrier. 3: Dont stay trapped in your job There is an amazing amount of peace and calm to be found in the simple fact that Im free to leave and find another job. Conversely, knowing that youre trapped in your current job makes everything much worse. Read my previous posts on How to lose your fear of being fired and the Top 10 advantages of low-rent living for more on this. Your take What about you? Have you tried being really angry because of major changes in your work life? How did it affect you? How did you handle it? Please write a comment, Id really like to know! Related posts The Feel Factor Why no workplace can afford to ignore what people feel How not to let annoying people annoy you How to turn around a bad day at work Thanks for visiting my blog. If you're new here, you should check out this list of my 10 most popular articles. And if you want more great tips and ideas you should check out our newsletter about happiness at work. It's great and it's free :-)Share this:LinkedInFacebookTwitterRedditPinterest Related