Body Language Mistakes in Interviews

Top 6 Body Language Pitfalls during an Interview

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Hello and welcome to this second article on the body language of the successful interviewee. Last month, I shared with you the 3 fundamental elements of your body language in interview which you need to manage in order to make a good impression during that conversation. If you would like to catch it up, just click here.

This month, we’ll look at really bad body language mistakes which can ruin an interview.

But before we delve into this tutorial, let me also point you worryto an earlier series of articles I produced last year: they focus on preparing you for your verbal interaction with the interviewer. You can find it here. They got a lot of hits so I am hopeful that they will provide you too with food for thought about how to engage the other person during that meeting.

Now let’s look at those ugly body language mistakes in interviews. For those of you familiar with the previous tutorial on the body language of the successful interviewee, you will remember the importance of making eye contact, smiling and shaking hands. So let’s first look at what happens when we don’t make eye contact, and/or don’t smile, and/or don’t shake hands appropriately.

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The Body Language of the Successful Interviewee

3 Body Language Secrets to Successfully Interview

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Hello and welcome to this article on the body language of the successful interviewee. I am continuing my series dedicated to assisting those among you who are interested in finding a new role in 2013. After my top 5 tips to produce a noteworthy CV and a 3-step process to write an eye-catching cover letter, this month’s offering as well as next month’s will focus on how to behave during interviews. if you missed the tutorials on either thejob interview 1 noteworthy CV or the eye-catching cover letter, just click here or there to catch either one or both up.

When it comes to how to successfully interview, let me first point you to an earlier series of articles I produced last year: they focus on preparing you for your verbal interaction with the interviewer. You can find it here. That series got a lot of hits so I am hopeful that they will provide you too with food for thought about how to engage the other person during that important encounter. In contrast, the upcoming two articles deal with the non-verbal challenges of interviews. This month, I will share with you the 3 fundamental elements of your non-verbal language which you need to manage in order to make a good impression during your interview. Next month, we’ll look at really bad body language mistakes which ruin an interview.

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Top 5 Tips to Making an Impact with your CV

The Noteworthy CV: A Preview of Coming Attractions

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Hello! So how are you doing with your New Year’s resolutions for 2013? I’m asking because most of us make some every January. For that reason, I had dedicated my first article to picking the right kind of New Year’s resolutions for you in 2013 so you stood a greater chance of keeping to them. If you missed it, just click here to catch it up.

   Curriculum Vitae   What I’d like to ask you now is: when you were pondering your New Year’s resolutions, did you take some time to honestly reflect on your job satisfaction? If so and if you are happy where you are, then you might want to make a note of this article for future reference. But if not, then read on. In this and upcoming articles, I will be looking at CV writing, cover letter composition and interview preparation. In this article, I thought I would share my top 5 tips so you produce a CV which will catch the eye of its readers and get you that interview you deserve.

Before I start, let me set the scene for you: in my experience, people hire folks who they can envision collaborating with as well as having a chat with by the coffee machine. How you present yourself professionally — whether in your CV, cover letter or during the interview – must be about demonstrating your competences as well as your ability to fit in and get along well.

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4 Steps to Effective Decision-Making

Taking your PICK™

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To all those of you who took a well-deserved break, let me welcome you back! You know, there is an interesting piece of statistics I always think about when it comes to September: September is the month when people make the most decisions. It’s not January despite that month’s association with New Year’s Resolutions. Rather, it seems that a lot of us take the time to reflect during a summer break and in September, we decide to do something about our fitness and join a gym, or to stop smoking or to really start looking for a new house.

So, with September being a bit ‘Decision-Making Month’, I thought I would talk to you about the process of decision-making so that you can self-assess how you go about making decisions today and see whether tweaking your approach could help be even more effective.

So, in the rest of this video, I will share with you the PICK™ model which is a 4-step approach to making effective decisions. PICK™ is also quite unique because you can use it in a number of ways to suit your style: it is a flexible approach which anyone can use and yet a robust method too.
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4 Steps to Optimal Performance

Going for GOLD™

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Welcome to the Olympic edition of the Career Tips Bulletin! As some of you will know, I live in London and Games fever is upon us. As such, I could not escape the feeling and I too have found myself inspired by the spirit of the Olympics.

For that reason, I thought I would share with you a simple method to optimise your performance. Many of you are likely to have had a mid-year performance review so you know where you stand – what is working well, what you need to pay attention to and what remains to be done.

It is my hope that the GOLD™ method will come just at the right time to both inspire you and provide you with pragmatic tips so you add value to your employer and you too get a gold medal for your performance in 2012!

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The 3 Fundamental Do’s of Successful Delegation

Finally Being Able to Effectively Delegate!

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In this article, I am turning my attention to the art of delegation.

But before we go any further, let me encourage you to see how well you currently delegate by taking this fun but informative self-quiz! Click here to take the test!

Have you been told by your manager that you should delegate more? Has anyone said of you that you micro-manage? Do you know that you don’t easily entrust tasks to others in your team?

If you don’t delegate as well as you could, what impact does that have? Grumbling employees? Long hours at the office, away from your family and friends? A sense of overwhelm?

Well, if you’ve been wondering about how to delegate better, if you’ve been trying to delegate more but find this challenging, this article is for you because, in a minute, I will share with you a simple but fundamental process of delegation. In addition to optimising your chances of receiving good quality work, this thorough process will alleviate the concerns of even the most sceptical would-be delegator.

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The 3 Main Ingredients of Effective Listening

Knowing how to Listen is Key to Gaining Influence in the Workplace

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In this article, I thought I would discuss 3 core principles for effective listening.

But first, let’s answer this: why bother listening?

1. When you listen, you learn.

If you assume you know best, what risk are you taking? If you take the time to ask others for their views, you may gain new and material information which could make a difference and foster a better solution. Moreover, "you save tremendous amounts of time, energy and money when you tap into the human resources of a business" as noted by the famous author Stephen Covey in his bestseller "The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People".
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The Top 3 Tips to Showcase your Value

The Art of "Ethical Bragging"

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In this third and last article on feedback, let me shift my perspective from the manager’s and how to give helpful feedback to the recipient and how to receive feedback constructively as well as make sure that your accomplishments are properly appreciated and therefore rewarded. In order to ensure your achievements are known and valued, practice the art of "ethical bragging": put yourself forward without arrogance. Here’s how:

Tip #1: be specific too

For those among you who saw my article back in September on performing a self-assessment of your performance, you may recall that I encouraged you to first make a list all the tasks you had completed and then, in a second step, to review each by asking yourself "so what". The purpose of the "so what" question is to bring to light the benefits for your employer of what you accomplished.

(For more on performance self-assessment, click here).

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The Top 3 Mistakes Managers Make When Giving Feedback

The Pitfalls of Giving Feedback

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In this second article on feedback, I will dwell on a few core aspects of a successful performance appraisal discussion by mentioning what are in my view the top 3 mistakes feedback providers make. There are sadly more than 3 but getting those right will go a long way!

Mistake #1: sugar-coating negative feedback (or the ‘Oreo Cookie’ problem)

In the preceding article, I mentioned the importance of setting the scene. One way to get off to a good start is by making a positive comment even if the rest of the feedback is going to be negative. This is because even the poorest performer has some capability, a talent to celebrate. It shows the feedback recipient that the feedback provider is able to see performance from a multiplicity of angles. Otherwise the recipient could think that the provider is just out to get them and simply ignore the feedback.

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8 Steps to Giving Really Constructive Feedback

A Feedback Conversation Unpacked

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We are in the home stretch, ladies and gentlemen, with only 6 weeks left to Christmas. At the firms I worked at, by now, the annual performance appraisal process was in full gear so in my last three articles for 2011, I will focus on giving and receiving feedback.

In this first article, I will run through 8 key components of a successful feedback discussion. It isn’t just for managers. It’s for anyone for who find themselves on the receiving end of a feedback talk: if it’s not going well, these 8 steps will allow you to steer the conversation into a more constructive direction. And if you find you can’t steer, at least you will have the insight to understand what’s going on and react constructively.

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