Why New Managers 'Sink or Swim'

By Ray Estrada

When I was a boy, my father used to tell me how he was going to teach me how to swim: “I’m going to throw you in the river and yell, ‘alligator!’”

I like to swim, but I’m still not very good at it, despite my dad’s pressure.

Many new managers are told to do their job with as much incentive as I was given to swim. Good managers are made, not just made up.

During about 25 years in various management roles, I initially learned the ropes from mentors and other managers. My experience as a manager was mostly trial and error, hit or miss. However, it was not until I received a scholarship for formal management training at the Medill Campus of Northwestern University that I realized how to do my job as an office leader.

While there is no substitute for experience, training is invaluable. Want to be a successful manager? Get some real training and your experience, and success, will grow exponentially.

Another reason why new managers fail is micromanagement. Many times their supervisors will not let them manage effectively. Looking over a middle manager’s shoulder makes for a less than desirable situation. Managers should be allowed to fulfill their job descriptions without significant changes for at least one year.

A performance review is a good idea after a period of time in which the new manager can prove himself or herself in a designated role.

A third reason why new managers fail is that they are the proverbial square peg in a round hole. This often happens when nepotism or other types of favoritism are involved. It is vital to hire – and train – the right person for the proper management role. Not doing so is costly and frustrating.

In short, to assume that an employee is management material can be folly. The way to be even more certain involves training and proper evaluation. Find the best people for management roles and back them up with proper support.

Professional Resume Templates

By James Coleman
Managing Editor 
Hloom

According to a large survey by Gallup published in 2013, analyzing answers from 230,000 full-time and part-time workers in 142 countries, only about 30% of employees worldwide are satisfied with their jobs. What’s even worse, approximately 25% of people hate their jobs. That raises a very important question. Why do so many people stay in a job where they are not happy? While the answer to that question is multifaceted, we all know that the process of applying for new jobs can be both time consuming and daunting.

Building Your Resume- Where to Start?

Your resume represents you as a professional on a piece of paper – it is your first impression with your future boss. Interestingly, resume writing is not a skill that is generally taught in school so once you are ready to start looking for a job, you are left to fend for yourself. In this age of technology, most people search the internet. There is an overabundance of information available online, yet very little of it is helpful and if you decide to take matters into your own hands, it is difficult to figure out where to start.

Start by putting together the content: work experience, summary of qualifications, achievements, education, keywords and any other important information that makes a powerful resume. (Not sure what and how to write? Get this Resume Writing Guide ebook). Then, chose a format: chronological, functional, or combination. Once you have your content ready, and only then, find the best template to ‘dress up’ your content.

Presentation Matters

While the content of your resume is always the most important part, the presentation is a close second. Consider for a minute the restaurant industry. What are some of the main differences between an average restaurant and a 5-star restaurant? The quality of the food is (or should be!) the main difference, but presentation matters. Our first experience of food is usually how it looks, and if something doesn’t look good, it is less likely that we will want to eat it.

Liken this to your resume. It doesn’t always matter if you are the best person for a particular job if your application doesn’t reflect it. Your resume is your ticket to the next step in the hiring process. A recruiter or a hiring manager spends an average of just 6 seconds looking at a resume and if yours doesn’t catch his or her attention in that time, it is sent straight to the discard pile instead of getting a second look.

So how do you make sure that you catch the attention of a hiring managerwho has 300 other applicants for the same position? Well, just keep your application organized, easy to read and add a little “wow factor”. Clear headings and concise information is essential as well as the order of the content. The thing about a resume is, you want to stand out and be remembered without going overboard and ending up in the “noticed – but not in a good way” pile in the hiring manager’s office.

When it comes to job search, “any press” is NOT “good press”. If you stand out because your resume is disorganized, cluttered, or just over the top colorful, you may not get a second chance with that company. And people talk. You may not get a second chance with three other companies that they are collaborating with either.

Resume layouts on this page come with “lorem ipsum” content since they are designed to help you with appearance of your resume. We also have examples sample content – be sure to check them out: High School Graduate Resumes, High School Student Resumes, Massage Therapist Resumes, Medical Assistant Resumes, Biodata,Cashier, and Babysitter.

Using Resume Samples: Good, Bad or Evil? 

A good template can really help you streamline your resume and keep it organized and professional without taking up a lot of your time, allowing you to focus on the actual content, as well as searching for your next job. It helps you add a touch of personality, stay structured and consistent and present your experience in a chronological, easy to read manner.

There are some professionals out there who advise against using templates because they believe it makes your resume look generic and won’t help you stand out from other job applicants. This is certainly true when you use the very same generic sample that everybody else is using, without making any changes. Recruiters and hiring managers see hundreds of resumes every day, and they can spot resume templates a mile away.

Don’t use our samples as a ready-made cookie-cutter solution. Use them as an inspiration, as a foundation of your unique, one-of-a-kind, creation.

Read more here

Big Dreams Fly on Strong Wings - lynda.com featured in Forbes Magazine

Big Dreams for those whose Business Wings 

have Passion, Purpose 

and  

Great Advisers.

Lynda Weinman, co founder of Lynda.com

How would you like to grace the cover or pages of  globally powerful business magazines?   Some of us have been fortunate to get this type of recognition for business success.  I have been honored to be among them and have ridden the entrepreneurial roller coaster myself.  I sold my companies nine years ago and watch the aggregator surpass a staggering billion dollars in sales.   That, my friend, is a whole different ball game than the mom and pops which may up 90% of America's businesses.   Today,   I am a  business coach at DeDominic & Associates in Santa Barbara California.    I have been been fortunate to associate, advise and learn from some of the best entrepreneurs in America.   

  Don't you think everyone should be featured in Forbes Magazine just in time to celebrate a special birthday?  It's not an impossible dream,  it happened this month  as Lynda Weinman got a very special gift.  The company announced another hundred million in investment capital, was featured in Forbes Magazine  and there are not too many more unique "gifts" than that.

  Lynda of lynda.com,  and her husband created the now famous business used by universities, governments and people around the world.   She is featured in Forbes as an American success story of epic proportions.    Congratulations to a woman, and her whole team including her husband Bruce, who has been living and working her dreams for over twenty years. You have earned your great success story and we here in the Southern California area are proud to call you a local! 

 Not exactly an overnight success, Lynda tells of some lean years and times when resources were scarce.    After 911, when people stopped flying in to Ojai for classroom training the company was forced to reinvent its service offerings.  Over the years  the company grew and added  more expert lead training sessions and content to help people learn about almost anything. Today the company is considered one of the fastest growing educational companies in the world. 

The Pacific Coast Business Journal  and other  technology news media reported that her company accepted over $186 million in outside funding and gross revenues are estimated to  have reached $150 million.    Not bad girlfriend!

She has been passionate about wanting to change the face and tools of education.    Years ago she told me she wanted to demystify and simplify the making of websites. Lynda wrote the first "plain English" version of  books on  website design. She has told the story to the MIT Venture forum,  the International Women's Festivals and the National Association of Women Business owners many times.  Partnering with her husband Bruce Heavin  and being blessed to have a teachers minds and great skill, the couple created Lynda.com.    Their Carpinteria, California based company with 400 employees has enjoyed a spot on Inc. Magazines fastest growing educational companies for the past few years. 

  I recently renewed my membership it is still only $25.00 to have access to a world of training on almost any business subject you could wish for.