What You Need To Stand Out In A Job Interview

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StrategyDriven Practices for Professionals Article |Stand out in a job interview|What You Need To Stand Out In A Job InterviewThe interview is the most important part of the hiring process. Not only does it give you an opportunity to present yourself to your potential employer, but it also allows them to see if they are likely to hire you too. You may have done everything right when applying for the job, but if you don’t do well in your interview, there’s no way that they will be interested in giving you a shot.

This is why you want to give it your best self and have the best chance of getting the job. But what does that look like and what does it take? Let’s take a look at some important points to help you here.

The Importance of Preparation & Presentation in a Job Interview

Job interviews are one of the most important aspects of the hiring process. They provide a chance to show the employer who you are, what you’re about, and make a connection. So, you’ll want to make sure that you can nail it by preparing properly. The most important thing is preparation in advance so that you don’t miss any key details when in your interview.

Research your potential employer and learn about the company’s culture, values, and history. If possible, try to find someone who has worked there recently or currently works there to get insider information before you go in for the interview.

How To Land The Interview In The First Place

The interview is the most important step in getting a job. But you have to make sure that you get there first. One way to land an interview is by following up with the employer after submitting a resume or application online. You also need to make sure that your resume is great by using a ksa response writer to get it all right. Also, be sure that you’ve not given straight forward answers and that you’re going to not only be suitable for the job, but also stand out as a key candidate!

What’s Important When Preparing For The Interview?

So when you’re actually thinking about getting to the interview, you’ll want to be sure that you’re prepared along the way. First impressions are important in an interview. So, make sure that you are wearing appropriate clothes like a suit or something similar. You also want to bring copies of your resumé with you. Be sure that you’re not late and that you’re polite and kind to the receptionist or whoever greets you when you’re there. It also helps to make sure that you’re in the right mindset for success when the interview begins.

How To Make a Good First Impression in an Interview

When you first meet the interviewer, you really want to be sure that you make a good first impression. But what does that actually look like? You get just a few seconds to come off in a certain way – so some of the things you might want to focus on, that employers want, can include you being enthusiastic and confident. Also be sure to smile and give a firm handshake. You will also want to make sure that they are interested in them and that you ask questions about their work. And if you are using humor, make sure that you do so appropriately.

Staying Calm in the Face of Difficult Questions

The stress of interviews and the fear of getting asked a difficult question can make you uncomfortable and less confident. It’s important to be prepared for all types of questions and to stay calm when answering them. Some of the key questions that you might get asked and that it helps to prepare for are;

  1. What’s your greatest weakness?
  2. Why do you want to work here?
  3. What is your greatest accomplishment?
  4. What are your salary expectations?
  5. Why should we hire you?

What To Do After The Interview

Finally, you might want to make sure that you know what to do after the interview. To find out what happened after the interview, you should ask the interviewer if they need any more information from you. If they say no, you can follow up with them in a day or two to check on the status of your application.

The safest practice is to wait for at least 24 hours before contacting them. This allows for them to go through your application without being contacted by phone or email. Sometimes they are hesitant about giving feedback due to fear of hurting the applicant’s feelings. Giving them some space will give them enough time to produce an answer that they feel comfortable with. So have faith and believe in yourself.

Be Like Water: 3 Martial Arts Lessons for Negotiation

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StrategyDrive Practices for Professionals Article |Negotiation|Be Like Water: 3 Martial Arts Lessons for NegotiationIn the struggle between the stone and water, in time, the water wins.

– Japanese Proverb

You may wonder what martial arts and negotiation have in common. As a lifetime practicing martial artist, I constantly use lessons from various martial arts to help me in my professional life. One of the most common themes running through all martial arts is the silencing of the “self.” Martial artists meditate to quiet themselves and become more attuned to the processes of the self and the world around them.

Negotiators must also be mindful, especially if they wish to be successful. When you’re doing all the talking and pushing, you’re the rock or the stone. Whereas when you’re water, you take whatever shape you need to become. This puts you automatically in control, even if that requires patience and time. You can be prepared for anything without being blocked by your thoughts and senses.

If you’re tense or distracted by the planning and anticipation of your next move toward your opponent, you’re much more likely to be hit. Similarly, if your thoughts and senses block you in negotiation, you’re more likely to give away your position, strategy and point of weakness. But if you come prepared to listen with complete openness, you begin to notice things. You find openings in arguments, unravel the essential backstories behind the arguments and realize where the actual questions lie.

Negotiation is investigative; it’s an art for the curious. Those who approach it with an open and serene mind are less likely to expose their weak points for attack. This is what it means to become the water and not the stone.

Here are some martial arts techniques to apply to negotiations:

1. Relax without showing strength or weakness

Great competitors will not show their strength because it also may display a weakness. Revealing your strength can expose your vulnerability. To be like water, relax.

I recall an instance where I did exactly this. I was attending a play in New York City’s Times Square with my business partner at the time, accompanied by his girlfriend and my wife. After the fantastic show, the audience poured through the exit. I was about 10 feet away from my wife and business partner’s girlfriend when I observed a man studying them. He seemed to be looking at their purses. I could sense he was about to make a move, so I immediately closed the gap and stood between him and the women.

I looked him in the eye and smiled and put out my hand to shake his hand, and I said, “Hey, how are you doing?” He put out his hand and shook mine, and I just said, “There’s nothing for you here.” He shook my hand for a little longer than you’d expect and then smiled and walked away.

This is a perfect example of the power of a be-like-water strategy. I wasn’t threatening. I wasn’t afraid. I could have approached the matter differently and been combative and accusatory, but that would have caused far more trouble than it was worth. I knew in that instance to be like the water — calm, collected. I listened and observed my surroundings and obstacles, ultimately knowing that through the art of listening and silencing myself that I could leave the situation unscathed yet wiser.

2. Find openings

In martial arts, the search for that opening in your opponent is a patient one that eventually yields results.

Negotiation is a human process and thus rich in human interaction, showing your human side, establishing that you care and demonstrating empathy make the people you interact with more comfortable. How can you do this? By listening and asking questions.

Imagine that you enter your negotiation with questions. You come in like water. You’re prepared but don’t presume your outcome by making demands of what you want. You ask good questions.

What are good questions? Those that, like water, find an opening.

Finding openings can be the most challenging part of a negotiation, and asking and listening offer the best opening. If you’re specific about precisely what you want at the outset, you may leave something important on the table. If you ask for too much, the negotiation may end quickly.

Openings require open-ended questions and a bit of small talk. People are more receptive to open-ended questions. Asking open-ended questions creates an atmosphere in which your counterparty thinks and believes that the ideas presented are his or her own.

When you open by listening, you’re letting the other party in the negotiation lead. But you need to let them lead in a way that doesn’t appear as though you’re trying to corner them. This means asking open-ended questions, not closed-ended ones. Think of closed-ended questions as those that can be answered with yes or no, while open-ended questions welcome narrative.

Patiently search for that opening in your opponent. Consider borrowing from classic sales techniques and using questions to uncover shared interests. Respond to the opponent’s answers with follow-up questions to establish trust.

An opening I’ve used is: “So, why are we here?”

I’ve diffused tension with a simple, “How can I help?”

Openings to negotiations should be simple, non-threatening, inviting and used to establish trust.

3. Wait for the right moment

Don’t come into a negotiation with your sword drawn. Come in empty-handed. Come in formless and shapeless, like water. Come in prepared to ask evoking questions that will lead to discovering information that you can use to your advantage. But first you must get them talking.

Intently concentrate on listening so that you’ll remember everything you hear. Uncover all of the essential backstory to find out the other party’s true desires and dissatisfactions and what they most want. Then, and only then, connect your services, your products and your perspective with the other person’s needs and desires.

Openings are conceptual gaps where you can test, interject and match their needs and desires with yours. You must be so well prepared and clear on your negotiating position that introducing these as needs and opportunities will be effortless. It will be natural. You’ll be leading, but the other party will believe that the lead is theirs. When you behave and act this way, the other party will feel like they’re teaching you.

Come in ready to listen with complete openness until the opportunity to present your position arises. Most of all, be patient and relaxed. Be like water.

About the Author

StrategyDriven Expert Contributor | Cash NickersonCash Nickerson is chairman of AKKA North America’s Business Unit. He was President, CFO, General Counsel, and the second largest shareholder of PDS Tech prior to its purchase by AKKA Technologies. Previous roles include attorney and marketing executive for Union Pacific Railroad, associate and then partner at Jenner & Block in Chicago, and chairman and CEO of an internet company. He teaches Negotiation as a Professor of Practice at Washington University in St. Louis, School of Law. Nickerson has authored several books, with his latest book, Negotiation as a Martial Art: Techniques to Master the Art of Human Exchange (Made for Success, July 2, 2021), named “Best New Release in Business Negotiations” by the Wall Street Journal. Learn more at cashnickerson.com.

3 tips for brainstorming as a professional

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StrategyDriven Practices for Professionals Article | 3 tips for brainstorming as a professionalBrainstorming sessions are the perfect way to improve your business. They will make sure all noses are pointing in the same direction. It almost sounds promising and exciting to go in for a new session. What are we talking about today? Which new products will we launch the upcoming months? Being part of a team of motivated employees and working on new things to improve your business can be ecstatic. It will boost your creative mind in ways you have never felt before. Unfortunately, this is not always the reality. Bad brainstorm sessions are more common than you think. Want to know how to improve the brainstorm sessions within your business? Here are 3 tips to help you brainstorm as a professional.

1. Only use pen and paper

Brainstorming can be quite hard when there are distractions all around you. That’s why it can be a great idea to put smartphones, tablet and laptops aside and just use plain and simple pen and paper. Just get out your favourite cross pen and an empty notebook and start writing. Just as you would when there weren’t any shortcuts.

Fun fact: by writing you’ll boost your brain to think more creatively. Writing words will take some effort from your brain. The left- and right side of your brain will need to be in perfect harmony to write. That’s why its capable to think more solution-oriented. Just what you need when brainstorming as a professional.

2. Assemble a great team

The people you work with during a brainstorm session are the most important. They make or break the success of the meeting. That’s why it’s important to assemble a great and very much diverse team. Don’t speak only with the employees of a certain department, but assemble a team with people from every department in your business. People who have right to say things. Of course, this doesn’t mean you’ll invite the janitor when there is a brainstorming about launching new products. The people you invite, need to have some form of connecting to the issue you’re trying to resolve.

It’s not only important to assemble the right team, but also to make sure that there aren’t to many participants in the room. The magic number will be between six and ten. Not too big, not too small.

3. Document everything

In the heat of the moment sometimes people will be outspoken by other participants. That can be a shame. Especially when great ideas aren’t heard. That’s why it’s important to ask a team member to document everything that’s being said. So, when the brainstorming session has ended, you’re able to read through the different ideas and maybe enjoy a great solution, which you hadn’t known about if there weren’t any notes.

Are You Spending Enough Time with Your Kids?

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StrategyDriven Practices for Professionals Article | Are You Spending Enough Time with Your Kids?They say that being a parent is the most difficult job in the world. You are both accountable and responsible for another life, and it is up to how this kid will become an individual a few years from now. When they say everything starts at home, it does indeed start with the parents. Being family-centered is just as important as regularly saying your prayers.

So what if you are not around to be a parent to your kid? What if you are working from afar to provide for your little beans? It is not commonly frowned upon, but there would be a possibility that this could affect your children.

It is a sacrifice you need to make, and you can only hope that your kids will understand your decision to work abroad to provide them a better shot in the future. But how do you make sure that your kids understand why you have to do this? How do you keep on being their mom or dad while you have chosen to be a better provider miles away from them?

If you relate to this situation, this article will help you find common ground with your kids.

Don’t Forget to Talk to Your Kids

Working away from your family is nowhere near easy. There’s the feeling of homesickness that can lead to an even magnified exhaustion after work. You will be struggling to adjust at first, but you need to find time to be present, especially when your kids are growing up fast to their teenage years. Kids who used to be sweet, thoughtful, and loving would later become brooding teenagers who like to be left alone. So before this happens, you need to make sure you are a part of your kid’s life.

There are scenarios that overseas Filipino worker (OFW) parents get lucky to have a yearly vacation, but there are others who get to visit home only after three to four years. Some even take longer to go back home. During this period, a lot could have happened to your kids when they needed a parent. Your daughter could have her first boy heartbreak and needed her dad to remind her she’s beautiful. Your son could have suffered a major rejection from his varsity tryout and needed his mother to cook his comfort meal. You won’t be there personally, but you can be present to still ask them about their days.

Don’t Forget to Send Them Gifts

Kids all have a soft spot for their parents. Adults would probably deny that, but we all did when we were younger. Kids ask their parents for toy presents, and they keep them close to their hearts. They would grow up and even remember the times you bought them the latest Lego collection. This small thing can either make or break their childhood, and you know it.

So even when you’re far from home, do not forget to send them gifts. Or if you cannot find a shop where you can buy imported toys, you can send money online and let your kids buy what they want for themselves. With a reliable remittance service, sending love to your kids would be easier than transferring to banks and waiting for a few business days for processing.

Do Activities with Your Kids

During this trying time, the world has learned that there could be ways to connect with your friends and family even when apart. There are video conferencing applications that help connect families and loved ones, and it isn’t just simple video calls anymore. Applications such as Discord and Zoom allow you to host parties with more than ten members! Also, it allows you to do watch movies together and even play together using smart bots. If you have kids young enough to enjoy these things, then these are for you.

Additionally, even without Zoom and Discord, parents can virtually do things together. You can cook meals with your kid, even play mobile games with them. As long as you are spending time with them, your kids would just forget the distance between you and them, and in a way, you would be an important part of their lives. You wouldn’t have to worry about your kids growing up without your presence.

Parenting is hard, and parenting from afar is harder. But with the right tools and consistent efforts to make time and be present, distance shouldn’t be a factor to raise a compassionate and kind individual. So don’t worry; you will get by.

What To Do When Receiving A Bad Review

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StrategyDriven Practices for Professionals Article |Receiving a Bad Review|What To Do When Receiving A Bad ReviewIt can be detrimental to your business if you receive negative online reviews. It is becoming more important than ever before for businesses to pay attention to what customers are saying about them on social media and online review websites due to the increasing popularity of social media.

The good news is that, even if negative online reviews occur, that does not necessarily result in loss of business like complaints made in person. In fact, they can be viewed as an opportunity to improve customer service. From using reputation management services to good communication with your customers, you can turn bad reviews into positive ones. Let’s look at how to deal with them below:

Respond Quickly

The online world operates around the clock and people expect to receive a quick response when they request it. As soon as a negative review appears, you must act quickly to avoid it escalating and attracting more potential customers to your brand.

Keep It Professional And Polite

If someone gives you a negative review, don’t react personally. Please handle the issue in a polite and professional manner. Don’t point the finger at other people or make excuses.

Handle The Issue Offline

Offer to deal with the issue in an off-line fashion, out of the public eye, when you acknowledge the problem. Let the person know where to find your contact info or email so that you can discuss the issue further.

You can then use the review website to put up a public comment outlining the agreed conclusion as soon as you have been able to resolve the issue.

Remove Or Request Removal Of Misleading Or False Reviews

You need to remove fake and misleading reviews if you know of them. An example of a misleading review that you should remove would be one that is written by any of the following.

The Competition and Consumer Act 2010 gives businesses and review platforms the power to remove fake reviews. Failing to do so could lead them to breach the law.

There is no harm in asking for reviews to be removed (or to remove them from your own website or Facebook page), but this is not the same as asking for them to be removed. There is nothing wrong with being negative here and there, even though social media is all about building relationships. Some examples include:

  • Keeping your personal relationship a secret from family or friends
  • In a competitive market
  • An unqualified reviewer who paid to write it
  • You or someone on your staff

Encourage Customers To Write Reviews

As a business owner, you can ask happy customers to write reviews if they are happy with your product or service. However, you need to be careful not to sway them into only writing positive reviews.

You can improve customer reviews online by:

  • Review sites: understanding how they operate
  • You can track mentions of your business by registering with Google Alerts
  • Review sites, especially those specific to your industry, provide alerts when a review is posted
  • Providing details on how your customers can post a review so they are aware you are listed on review sites
  • Your staff should receive reviews

This guide should help you when dealing with bad reviews. Do you have any other tips that could help? Please share them in the comments below.