It’s hard enough to keep up with a demanding boss and your never-ending to-do list, but finding a new job on top of everything else is enough to make even the most organized and on-top-of-it gal feel a little crazed. If you’re as guilt-prone as I am, then you may feel a little like you’re cheating on your company by sneaking around behind your coworkers’ backs. The long lunches, the extra lipstick stashed in your purse, the secret phone calls behind closed doors…you get the idea. Here are a few tips to keeping your search on the DL.  Read more... (626 words, estimated 2:30 mins reading time)

Leadership often involves negotiating very tough deals, or handling strong objections, or getting a reluctant team to agree to some difficult course of action. To accomplish such things, we employ all the verbal means at our disposal. We argue, we reason, we cajole, we promise, we wheedle, we make deals. A lot of verbal heavy lifting.  Read more... (572 words, estimated 2:17 mins reading time)

What do you need to do to find the kind of enjoyment or progress you want in your career? Joel Garfinkle, founder of Dream Job Coaching, a consulting firm specializing in personal fulfillment and professional transformation based in Oakland, California, offers these suggestions.

Determine Which Aspects of Your Job You Like

Then find a way to do more of whatever that is. When you are engrossed in a project you like, your workday will be energizing rather than draining. You may also find that the tasks you enjoy are the same ones a coworker or boss dislikes. Find out if you can work out a win-win situation.  Read more... (524 words, estimated 2:06 mins reading time)

You’ve landed your first job out of college. That wasn’t easy, in this tough time. Now you’ve got to make sure you keep it and succeed at it.

How? You can start even before you arrive at work. Set up a Web news-alert account that emails you news stories relevant to your new employer, says Danielle Leyland, a recruiter in the information technology department at Sherwin-Williams, the paint company. That will help prepare you to engage your coworkers when you get there, especially if there’s big news–and it’s also a way to find out about potential opportunities. Even if it’s bad news–a round of layoffs or company downsizing, for example–it will affect the entire company and will be important to know about.  Read more... (764 words, estimated 3:03 mins reading time)