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CHESTER, Pa., Jan. 31, 2012 /PRNewswire/ – We are, of course, disappointed by today’s ruling by the Commonwealth Court. Although it does not reach the merits of the case, the Court’s decision not to order immediate payment to Chester Community Charter School (CCCS) of approximately…
PR Newswire: Financial Services
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LONDON, January 25, 2012 /PRNewswire/ –
ZOL, the leading ISP in Zimbabwe, is experiencing steep growth in demand for bandwidth, driving ZOL to seek affordable uplink providers. DiViCloud is the perfect service, providing capacity from the cloud simply by placing a server in ZOL’s…
PR Newswire: Financial Services
Before Christmas, I awrote a post on my blog, The Recessionista, about tips for buying professional attire for job hunters. Within the text of that post on The Recessionista, we ran a contest offering winners the chance to get their job hunting questions answered by Gen Y expert Christine Hassler.
In today’s tough economy everyone can always use some tips about how to best position themselves for employment. It’s not just new college graduates that need help and advice. Seasoned professionals need help too, especially as the way we look for jobs has changed. In the era of social media, where there are weekly Tweet-ups like #Jobhunt chat, many job hunters are networking and job hunting in the new social world using Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn to assist them. Since social media is new to many people, it’s no surprise that our readers and thousands of job hunters are looking for answers. Hundreds of questions were submitted. I’ve selected two excellent questions submitted by readers of The Recessionista, one a traditional job hunter’s question, and one question about how to best use social media to job hunt and to publish, since social media and returning to work after an absence were questions asked by many readers. The answers by Christine Hassler offer some great tips.
Question #1 from contest winner Ellen: “On the subject of returning to the job market after an absence — how best to describe what you were doing while gone?”
A. Christine Hassler: The truth! Most people have a great reason why they were out of the market. The most important thing is that you believe that it was a good thing and something that in someway enhanced your professional life or personal life (and when our personal life is better we naturally are better employees because we are happier and less distracted at work). The more concerned you are about it, the more others will be. So tell the truth, talk about what you learned and how excited you are to return to work. Keep directing the conversation in the interview forward rather than rehashing the past.
Question #2 from from reader Amber: “How do you keep your social media profiles such as Facebook, Myspace, Twitter ideal for when employers search for your name online?”
A. Christine Hassler: I recommend having at least one social networking outlet that can be exclusively for your personal use that is not under the same name that is on your resume. Use that as a place for pictures, updates about what you are doing in your personal life, and a way to connect with friends. Keep your searchable SM sites very professional. Check all your pictures, post quotes and links to articles that are relevant to your profession. Think of social media as another version of your resume.
Thanks to Christine for so thoughtfully answering these questions. I have some extra pieces of advice for job hunters. First, join job hunting networks via Facebook, LinkedIn or Meet-up that may help you connect with employers. Second, if social networking is part of your job search or your life, don’t post anything publicly that you wouldn’t want your future employee to see. Remember the story of a young job hunter just offered a job by Cisco who tweeted that he wasn’t sure if he should take it? Well, it wasn’t long before Cisco manager read that Tweet and responded. Here’s how that dialogue went:
“Cisco just offered me a job! Now I have to weigh the utility of a fatty paycheck against the daily commute to San Jose and hating the work.”
“Who is the hiring manager. I’m sure they would love to know that you will hate the work. We here at Cisco are versed in the web,” tweeted back Tim Levad, a “channel partner advocate” for Cisco Alert.
Ouch! I don’t know if the hapless Tweeter ever made it to Cisco, but he committed corporate suicide before ever starting the job. I’ll always remember what Elizabeth Taylor said about Twitter in Harper’s Bazaar last year, because I think she really understood how to use Twitter for networking in the public fishbowl of the Internet. After all, she had every extensive public relations training since she was a child star. It’s no surprise that she got social media. “I love the idea of real feedback and a two-way street, which is very, very modern. But sometimes I think we know too much… So, like all things, it is to be used with care!” said Dame Elizabeth.
Do you use social media to connect with others or follow Twitter IDs, LinkedIn groups or Meet-up groups that share job information? Social media is another version of your resume, your brand and ultimately you. So remember, first impressions count 
You can’t have a strong economy without strong banks. That’s why President Bush’s and, later, President Obama’s first attempts to save the economy from a deep recession were focused around bank bailouts. And the fact that the banks have remained weak, despite the government’s efforts, is one of the major reasons the economy recovery has [...]
Business
When the NYPD evacuated Zuccotti Park, forcibly removing the protesters who had made the public space their nerve center, organizational laboratory, and home for more than two months, they brought to a close a significant chapter of the Occupy crusade. While its populist message of frustration with government dysfunction, financial regulation, and joblessness undoubtedly impacted the American political dialogue, the effort’s long-term effects remain to be seen. Regardless of whether or not Occupy Wall Street and its sister organizations become catalysts for systemic change (or your political perspective on the merits of reform) the protesters have taught us a number of critical lessons about mobilizing movements that leaders — whether business, political, or non-profit — should bear in mind.
Balance consensus with decree. One of the most distinctive features of the Occupy movement is its embrace of a highly participatory, democratic means of decision-making otherwise known as the General Assembly. The details of General Assembly management are somewhat complex, but they’re grounded in a simple process. Any participant may bring to the table a proposal for the group’s discussion. A facilitated conversation ensues that seeks to establish consensus — defined in this case as the absence of “outright opposition.” If consensus is achieved, the proposal is put into action. Otherwise, participants may rework proposals and reintroduce them for further debate.
What’s great about the General Assembly is the way it engages participants in dialogue and makes them integrally involved in shaping the way forward. When decisions are finally made, they’re more likely to be pursued with dedication since they’re created by team members rather than imposed on them. On the other hand, consensus-based decision-making — especially among large groups like the 2,000 plus OWS protesters — is incredibly slow.
Giving every person with a perspective equal opportunity to share and participate in debate is a recipe for inaction. As leaders, our job is to establish forums for bottom up feedback without promising an equal measure of “air-time” or credence to all team members. Gather ideas, host discussions, confer with advisors, but retain decision-making authority. Whenever possible, resist the temptation to divvy up accountability for making the call. Execution works best when there’s one person at the helm.
Inspire through emotion; support through community. There’s a lot about Occupy Wall Street that’s illogical: picking a fight with a faceless political-economic system, camping out in downtown Manhattan, drum circles. And yet thousands of people dedicated their lives to the occupation for months on end. They self-organized into working groups, cooked meals, and cleaned up each other’s mess. They launched a media hub and established a library. They marched. They chanted. Some got arrested rather than abandon their convictions. No one got paid. There were no bonuses awarded for superior performance.
You don’t inspire this kind of behavior through rational appeals. There is no “business case” that motivates people to sacrifice and give of themselves so passionately. To mobilize movements, participants have to be emotionally connected to the work at hand. There must be a force bigger than profits or prestige that calls them forward. And to sustain that momentum in the face of the challenges that confront any group, there needs to be a sense of togetherness that binds individuals to one another. We are social beings. We yearn for community. When we triumph and when we fail, we turn to one another — for celebration or for the strength to carry on.
Can you identify the cause that anchors your organization and inspires your colleagues to bring their best to work everyday? Is it something simple and human? Does it tap your emotions and capture your imagination? Once you’ve nailed it — and you’ll know it when you have — rally your teams around that cause and remind them of it daily. Then, take a moment to consider the nature of your organization’s community. Does it balance a drive for performance with caring and compassion for team members? Does it value the personal and professional growth of its members as it values the bottom line? Is it a community you’re proud to lead and be a part of? If your answer is anything less than an emphatic “Yes!” consider what needs to be done to move in that direction.
Power off and tune in. One of the restrictions placed on the protesters in New York was a ban on the use of amplification. The idea was to limit the “sound pollution” inflicted on local residents and businesses. This may not seem so significant out of context, but the absence of mics was a big hurdle for a group of thousands of people trying to communicate with one another. From that challenge was born an innovative solution — the human microphone. Here’s how it works. The speaker shares a short burst of commentary. The crowd — particularly those closest to the speaker — repeats what was spoken in unison, so those in back can hear. For particularly large assemblies, the crowd might use several waves of repetition to ensure all those attending register the speaker’s words. It’s not the most efficient means of public speaking, but there is something powerful in the human microphone’s ability to capture participants’ attention. The absence of technology prioritizes the message over the medium and builds an almost tribal bond between those involved.
In the modern workplace, most of us spend our days sitting alone behind computer screens. Our teams are often virtual with colleagues dispersed around the world. We communicate and engage with one another via email, instant messaging, and social media. Many of our meetings are phone calls, or if we’re lucky, videoconferences. There are fewer and fewer opportunities to gather together in the same room. The strong ties built on face-to-face interaction have been replaced by the relatively weak connections afforded to us through technology. That’s not to say that technology is bad. To the contrary, it can be a powerful enabler of cross-organizational connectivity. But it cannot replace the power of human interaction. The Occupy level commitment that leaders need of their people to support a large-scale transformation, break into a new market, or launch a disruptive product demands a reinvestment in face time.
Whether you’re a senior leader or a new manager, consider what would happen if you made the decision to power off — if only briefly — in 2012. What kind of ideas would be generated if you got up from your computer and walked down to your colleague’s desk the next time you have to speak with her? How might the investment to fly to your next divisional meeting and engage face-to-face with your team members pay itself off? What if you canceled your lunch date with Facebook and booked a team get together instead? It’s tough to measure the dollar value of recommitting to building real, human connections with your coworkers, but the trust you will engender among colleagues will no doubt rise. From a leadership perspective, if your people trust you — if they have confidence that you have their best interests in mind — they’ll follow you anywhere. And even if you’re not a leader, you’ll find your work experience much more satisfying when it’s shared with people, not just machines.
Occupy Wall Street may seem like an unlikely source of leadership and organizational wisdom. But before you dismiss the protesters, consider that great ideas often come from the fringe and what’s counter-cultural today becomes mainstream tomorrow. Regardless of your political persuasion, the Occupy movement illustrates valuable lessons about decision-making, community building, and what it takes to inspire a group of people to dedicate themselves wholeheartedly to a cause.
What’s the first step you’d take to occupy your company?
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TAIYUAN, China, Jan. 13, 2012 /PRNewswire-Asia-FirstCall/ – On December 20, 2011, Director of Puda Coal, Inc. (“Puda Coal” or the “Company”), Jianfei Ni, resigned from the Board of Directors and all the board committees that he served on.
On December 28, 2011, Puda Coal…
PR Newswire: Financial Services
