Third Tip To Make Your Boss Love You!

SmartMoney magazine's third tip to make your boss love you is to defuse a bad situation. A Harvard Business Review study confirmed that most supervisors form an impression of a subordinate within five days. - an "in-group" and an "out-group". Once an employee gets lumped into an "out-group", the supervisor will NOT take note of their accomplishments but instead looks for failures that reinforce the initial impression.

What to do if you suspect you are in the "out-group"? Ask for a meeting with your supervisor and have a frank discussion. The supervisor will not call the meeting - they hate confrontation as much as the next guy, so you have to ask for it. Taking the initiative and calling the meeting is a huge source of relief. Don't whine - "you don't like me", - but rather come armed with a list of job objectives you haven't met, pinpoint reasons you aren't making the mark, and offer suggestions while asking for help. This can work for one-time CLM's (career limiting moves) as well.

Go to the October 2009 SmartMoney for the full article.

Make Your Boss Love You - Empathize

Smart Money magazine (Oct. 2009) says the second way to make your boss love you is to empathize -- put yourself in your manager's shoes which can take the sting out of bad boss behavior. Why? Studies show that there is one underlying fear that most supervisors' have - fear of looking bad to their superiors. When a boss is demanding, irritable, critical or stubborn, chances are it's not you. They are probably upset about something else -- like a big presentation, offer to help.

Recently in my own office, not that I am EVER demanding, irritable, critical or stubborn, I was having a particularly bad day. I unjustly snapped a couple times at my employees for pretty small insignificant things. At lunch, one of them went and bought me a bottle of wine and put it the office refrigerator in case my day didn't get better. It was a wonderful gesture, it put me in a good mood because I was touched that she was concerned and my day got better. Small gestures mean a lot.

Bad Customer Service

A US News and World Report survey claims that 68% of customers leave because of an attitude of indifference on the part of an employee. Just last weekend, I went to pick up a floral order from a local grocery store. The order was wrong, and instead of apologizing, the clerk kept insisting it wasn't their fault because whoever took the order (one of their employees) wrote it down incorrectly. Duh-huh. Then, she looks at me and says, "we'll your order won't be as nice because we'll have to use more flowers". This puzzled me because I have been buying this particular floral arrangement for 8 years and have always gotten something very nice for my $40. So anyway, I left, pretty steamed. When I pick my correct order up and if it is pretty puny, I'll contact the store manager. All she had to say was "I'm sorry, we goofed up, but will make it right".

It's not that hard!

10 Ways To Make Your Boss Love You!

Smart Money magazine has a great article in the October 2009 issue titled 10 Ways to Make Your Boss Love You. Pick up an issue for the complete article, but I will try and summarize it over the next few blogs.

No. 1 Put in the Hours - When It Counts. We are all doing more with less but studies show that most employers don't care how many hours an employee has to work, as long as they get the job done. Yes, late nights or a sacrified weekend in a crunch is ok. If it's just for "show", your employer may wonder why you can't finish your work in the same amount of time it takes everyone else. And don't brag about it. You'll look self serving and no one like a martyr.

Would You Post It In Front of Your Mother?

This blog is courtesy of our new Drake Intern, Betsy Heath.

There’s an old saying that if you wouldn’t do it, speak it, or act it out in front of your mother, you think twice about it in public. The same is true for social media websites. Networking sites such as Facebook and Myspace are prime targets for employers to weed out those applying for a job. If there is one position open, and ten qualified applicants to choose from, where will they start? You guessed it! The Internet. Anyone with an inappropriate Facebook picture or video will be the first to go. This shows employers that you aren’t serious about your future. Make sure your social networking pages stay ‘employer-friendly.’

If you just got scared enough into deleting the ‘inappropriate’ pieces off of your wall, that isn’t enough. Just because it isn’t on your page anymore doesn’t mean it isn’t still out there. You better believe that it will show up down the road when you least expect it. Take precautions to make sure that you are only in situations that won’t harm your job-hunt. Don’t allow people to take pictures of you doing embarrassing things because you know you will be tagged tomorrow morning. Be smart, clean up your networking pages!

Past Performance is the Best Indication of Future Behavior

It is said in human resources that past performance is the best indication of future behavior. This couldn't be more true of people who change jobs constantly. If you have had three jobs in the last three years statistically you will have three jobs in the next three years. This is particulary true of people who quit voluntarily to take a new position. It is not uncommon to see people leave their resume on the major job boards even after they have taken a new job. Which raises some questions. How serious are you about your career if you take a new job and still are looking? What would your employer think if he sees your resume still posted? Do you think they don't check? They do. We do. What does that say about your stability? At a minimum we look for at least two to three years in a current job. Yes, some people are downsized and have had no choice but to look for a new job, but if you are constantly being downsized, something isn't right either.

Employers spend a ton of money on recruiting, training, product knowledge, equipment, etc. on new employees. Studies show that people who stay in their current job are more likely to earn more than those who jump constantly. You need to make the commitment to give the job 100%. Once you have accepted a position, take your resume off the job boards!

Dates on Resume

Recently we have seen a rash of resumes that do not have the dates associated with the job. Sometimes the dates are included but it is at the end of the resume in a "list" fashion. When recruiters or HR people see that dates are not included (or are not specific or hard to find) it is a red flag. We immediately think "they must not have been in each job very long" meaning you look like a job hopper. Maybe you are a job hopper but it is much better to be upfront about it rather than to hope someone won't notice. We do notice and unless you have a very compelling skill that is tough to find, most of the time we won't bother to contact you and ask for dates.

Remember, recruiters and HR people take about 30-45 seconds to scan your resume to see if it worth calling or bringing you in for an interview. Give yourself every advantage.