One of the focuses of my blog is Career Discussions. Whether in the Public or Private sectors, there are instances where employees witness some form of corruption and must decide whether or to say something, or to simply look the other way. While it may be for the greater good, in some instances, there could be long-term ramifications for being a ‘whistleblower’. The following contributed post is thus entitled, Fighting The Corruption: How To Protect Yourself As A Whistleblower.
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Have you seen or found evidence of activity in your workplace that seems shady, unethical, or downright illegal? If your answer is yes, then you have a tough choice to make. You can either keep quiet and allow these issues to continue or voice your concerns and risk facing backlash. If you go with the latter and decide to become a whistleblower, then it’s crucial that you protect yourself from any dangers that may arise from speaking up. Here are six ways for you to do that.
1. Put Everything In Writing Once you’re certain that there’s an issue to be addressed, you should document any information that you have gathered and store it somewhere safe. Record phone conversations, keep texts, emails, and letters, and film any face-to-face discussions. Make sure that you have hard copies of all of this information, just in case you experience technical issues or ever get hacked.
2. Speak To A Professional A common response to whistleblowing is character assassination. For this reason, you should find yourself a lawyer experienced in whistleblower lawsuits. They will help you to fight this backlash, as well as support you and put forward the best case possible. Many laws provide a financial incentive for whistleblowers, so your lawyer will also help you maximize your rewards.
3. Stick To The Facts Making false claims publically can see you sued for defamation. Because of this, you need to make sure that you stick to the facts and never exaggerate any of the information that you have gathered. The more reliable and honest that you can be, the more credible you will appear. This means that you’ll have a much easier time convincing others that your claims are genuine.
4. Don’t Discuss The Situation While your case may not be quite so serious, there have been situations in the past where the whistleblower put themselves in danger by speaking up. If you think that your life or family could be at risk, it’s better to remain anonymous, at least for now. Avoid discussing the situation with anyone other than the authorities and your lawyer, including your close friends and family.
5. Keep Doing Your Job Whistleblowers tend to lose their jobs as a result of speaking up. However, until the same happens to you, it’s crucial that you keep working as normal. After all, you don’t want to give your employer a valid excuse to get rid of you. Make sure that you continue to show up on time, keep yourself productive, follow the workplace policies, and try not to make any more waves for now.
6. Prepare For The Worst Although you can hope for the best, it’s sensible to prepare for the worst. With that in mind, you should build up an emergency fund, just in case your boss decides to fire you regardless. If you think that you could be in any danger, you may also want to go and live somewhere else for a while. This could be with a trusted friend or family member or just a hotel.
Blowing the whistle means exposing the wrongdoings within a company or organization. While this is the right thing to do, it can leave you vulnerable to a number of risks. To make sure that you’re protected, follow the advice above.
The first principle of my blog is Creating Ecosystems of Success and two key focus are Career Discussions and Health/Wellness. If you’re a manager in an organization or a business owner, a key consideration is keeping your employees at as low a level of stress as possible. If you can do so, you can get them to give you a consistently high level of productivity. The following contributed post is therefore entitled, Calm In The Cubicle: Encouraging Your Employees To Be Stress-Free.
What we can suffer from when we are starting out on our business journey is that the business takes priority and not necessarily anything else. You might be working to promote your business day and night, and this can be to the detriment of the most important aspect of your company, the employees. After all, if we overworked and underpaid our employees, how long are they going to stay with us? Not very long. But, if we work at improving our employees, nurturing their capabilities, but also ensuring that they are happy in our working environment, this will naturally translate to productive and efficient work. So we need to think about those employees sat in the cubicle, on their own for hours on end, are they actually being productive? Maybe it’s time to look at the more stressful aspects of work, and eradicating them for good?
What Stresses Out Your Employees? First things first, we don’t have an open door policy; we need to get this arranged. To get an open dialogue with our employees, we need to have continual contact with them, but we need to find what is making them feel bad. These days, stress and anxiety are two common components of modern living, and this naturally spills into their working lives. Sometimes their working lives are the very reason. If we can start to unravel this by having good quality communication and regular contact with our employees to ensure that we are on top of these issues, we can then put the stops in place that benefits everyone.
Fixing The Space If you have rows upon rows of cubicles, this needs to go. In addition to this, you may want to take your attitude to the workplace out of the 20th century and bring it bang up to date! To alter the space and make it an environment where employees are not just hemmed in like farmyard animals, you should take inspiration from the more modern startups and make them a talisman for what you want to achieve. There are professionals such as Vertical Interior Design that can help you to redesign your office space so you can get rid of the cubicles and the open plan, and make it a more inclusive and collaborative space. This will help your employees to feel they are in more of a collection which will actually impact their work for the better, but those office cubicles never lend themselves well to communicating with anyone. When you see those offices that are silent and almost ghostly in presence, you’d never expect the environment to be a nurturing one.
Flexibility If your employees feel that their job is the biggest source of stress in their lives, what you can do to make it easier on them is to employ a more flexible approach to their working day. For example, those busy working parents who are always rushing to get in for 9 in the morning, but always end up being late may feel that they have the Sword of Damocles hanging over their head every time they turn up a little bit late. But instead, why don’t you push the clock back a bit for them? Having a more flexible schedule will make them stress less and work better.
Sourcing The Right Stimuli Because a typical office is somewhere that’s the very embodiment of drab, or demotivation, or without the right touchstones, you can focus on these negative aspects and they can color your entire attitude to work. So if there is nothing much we can do about this, then we need to work at improving the cognition of our workers by implementing certain things that can help in the long run. The right snacks can be a godsend, especially when you look at the fact that the typical office culture celebrates sugar and greasy carbohydrates in the form of doughnuts and pizza, every time there’s a deadline that is tight or you want to reward your employees. But this only makes them sluggish in the long run. Likewise, if you have a very busy office space, and you have employees that are struggling to focus, you can make the most of various productivity tools to help your workers focus better in this stressful environment. The right noise app can drown out any office hubbub and allow your workers to focus on the task at hand. Likewise, if you’ve got a lot of work that needs doing, and a lot of typing, then voice recognition programs could cut that workload in half!
Stress in the workplace comes in many different ways, shapes, and forms. Work-related stress is very common, but there are the external aspects that can cloud their ability to work as well. If we can encourage a more relaxing environment in the workplace, this will translate to a happier person and a healthier environment.
The first principle of my blog is Creating Ecosystems of Success and a key focus is Career Discussions. The medical industry is unique in that you directly affect the lives and health of people. In this regard, even the simplest error or mistake can be fatal and costly. What kinds of errors are there? The following contributed post is entitled, Mistakes You Can’t Afford to Make in the Medical World.
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When you work in the big wide medical world, there isn’t much room for error. When a doctor , surgeon, researcher or nurse makes a mistake the results can be catastrophic. If you’re working in the medical industry you need to be able to minimize mistakes and keep your business running smoothly. This is not only for the sake of your patients, but your reputation will be on the line too. Every human has made a mistake at some point in their life, but it’s not often to the detriment of another life. The medical world will always be full of ups and downs, but as long as you can keep a level head, you will succeed with minimal errors.
Translation Errors
When you’re working in the medical sector you will often be faced with documentation and devices that are written in a different language. You can’t afford to look up these kind of translations on the internet so click here to find highly specialized document translation services. You can be sure that your information is specifically translated by a professional so that you minimize mistakes in your establishment.
When a patient is overlooked or misdiagnosed it can put your entire career in jeopardy. Of course, this type of thing happens all the time in hospitals and surgeries, but how can it be prevented? Make sure every single person who works for you understands each protocol for diagnosing patients. If there is any dispute or ambiguity somebody senior should step in and give their opinion on the patient’s condition. When you’re more thorough in a medical environment it helps your patients to receive the best care possible.
Failing Employees
In the medical industry there will always be a handful of employees who slip through the cracks with their skill sets. You need to make sure you never allow unqualified or dangerous people into your working environment. Thorough checks should be carried out before giving anybody a job. You could even start people on a probation period if you’re unsure. Implement training programs so that every everybody always feels supported.
Missed Opportunities
There will always be new clinical trials that your establishment wants to try out. Although they can be risky when medical treatments go wrong, it is always good to give them a try whenever possible. You will never be able to enhance your knowledge if you don’t step out of your comfort zone from time to time. Assess each situation as it arises and you will always know you did your best.
Your medical business will always be your pride and joy, so don’t allow any mistakes to slip under the cracks. Put adequate training programmes in place and hire the right people for certain jobs. Whether you’re training new interns or hiring someone to translate documents, every level of the chain is extremely important. Missing out on one important stage could cost your business and reputation. Don’t leave room for errors and you will never have to worry about picking up the pieces.
The first principle of my blog is Creating Ecosystems of Success and a key focus is Career Discussions. In some instances losing our jobs is in our control and in other instances, it is beyond our control. In either case, it’s important to think about what you would do should such a circumstance arise. The following contributed post discusses this and is entitled, How Would You Cope With Losing Your Job?
The world of work has changed dramatically. In our grandparents and parents eras, you’d often get a job after leaving school or university and work that job until you retired. Industry and businesses tended to be long lasting, and job roles in general were much more secure. These days, things change quickly. The speed that technology advances means that companies have to adapt, and the roles that exist within them change to match. Companies have higher rates of failure for this reason, and so none of our jobs are quite as safe as we’d like to think. No one likes to think about being made unemployed, but if your company goes under, you get made redundant or you get sick or injured then it’s something you’ll have to face. ‘Hope for the best but plan for the worst’ is a good mindset to have here, here’s what you can do to get yourself in the best position if this were to happen.
Save and stockpile Having money saved in general is no bad thing. Often in life, big expenses will crop up from time to time, and if you have a ‘buffer’ it can prevent a situation from becoming a lot more stressful. Aim to have at least three months of rent/ mortgage, bills and other costs set aside in the bank. That way, if you do lose your job you have everything covered for a few months while you find something else. A new job won’t always come right away, so by having this money set aside you don’t risk falling into debt or arrears or even losing your home. Another thing you could do is stockpile long lasting food items, toiletries, cleaning products and other home essentials. Fill up your pantry with staple items- tins, jars, dried grains, herbs and spices and you have a number of meals you can make if you’re short on cash for a while. Fill a cupboard upstairs with kitchen and toilet paper, toothpaste, shampoo, soap and cleaning essentials for the home. At least that way you don’t have to struggle during leaner times, particularly if you end up losing your job. You don’t need to go mad and stock up as if the zombie apocalypse is imminent. But grab a few essentials when they’re on sale and store them away, you might be glad of it one day.
Get insured Having health, dental, home, pet and other kinds of insurances means you’re not left out of pocket if the worst were to happen. Insurance costs might seem like something you can cut out of your budget if you’ve recently lost your job, but it’s now you need them more than ever. If you do need to make a claim you’ll be so glad you had them in place.
Have an alternate source of income Having a side hustle, a way to earn some extra cash (even better if it’s from home!) can make your situation a little easier if you lose your main source of income. Whether it’s from freelancing, blogging, a Youtube channel or a home business, you at least have some cash flow coming in and can cover your basic costs. It can take some time to get a side hustle established to the point that it’s earning regular money, so don’t wait until you’re at the point that you really need it. Start today, work it in your spare time and use it as a way to boost your monthly income. That way, it’s there if you need to rely on it later down the line.
Improve your CV Improving your CV means that if you do lose your job, you’ll find it easier to get something else. Don’t just rely on the experience from your current role, there’s plenty more you can do. Why not do an online course in a subject that’s linked to your career path. You can study online, from home in your spare time so it doesn’t have to be a huge commitment. You could take up some voluntary work, or even start a hobby that would look good to employers. For example, if your chosen career requires patience and logic you could start at a chess club. If if requires teamwork, a team sport would look impressive.
Ensure you’re claiming the money you’re entitled to There are various benefit and welfare schemes out there, make sure that you’re claiming everything you’re entitled to. There are certain benefits that you don’t need to be out of work to claim, for example military spouse benefits and child benefit that you get regardless if you’re entitled. But sickness, disability and job seeking benefits could all apply to you depending on the reason you’re out of work. Be sure to check and claim the money that’s owed to you.
How would you cope if you lost your job tomorrow? Do you have any systems in place that would make the process easier?
Two of the major focuses of my blog are Career Discussions and Technology. Several new and novel technological innovations are under production and are coming online. One is robotics which are projected to soon impact every facet of world economies. It’s important to understand how robots will impact our world going forward. The following contributed post is thus entitled, The Surprising Professions That Could Be Replaced By Robots.
We’re all aware, in this day and age that most things are run by technology and that it’s overtaking more and more aspects of our daily lives. However, although there’s always a plus side to technology being able to manage things in our lives, such as making things more efficient and taking away the need for us to do everything on our own, there’s still the downside, and one of the main downsides is that many of the professions that we’ve come to rely on being done by people are now slowly seeing more technology, AI and even robots being introduced and changing how these jobs are done.
Most of us know that there are some professions that just make more sense to be run by technology and that it’s safer and better for human involvement to be taken out of these, however, in this post, we’re going to share with you some of the most surprising ones that people wouldn’t really expect to be replaced by robots, but that are slowly moving that way.
Lawyers:
Being a lawyer is still one of the best and most esteemed jobs out there to have, but as anyone who’s ever worked with one knows, they are expensive, and although most of the aspects of a lawyers job isn’t going to be overtaken by robots anytime soon since it still needs that human interaction, there are definitely parts that can be automated and done by robots and this is a big risk to those who work in this profession since this is going to impact a lot of the services they can charge their clients for. Only time is going to tell just how much automation by robots is going to impact the lives of those who wish to become or already are lawyers, but it’s definitely not immune from AI and it’s something that lawyers should be aware of so that they can make the necessary changes in the things they learn for their jobs to make them more desirable to clients.
Data Entry Professionals:
Data entry is something that’s considered to be a repetitive, and therefore, quite a boring and monotonous task, so it’s not really surprising that with all the technology we have today that data entry is something that someone’s found a way to automate and have replaced by robots. However, this certainly doesn’t mean that just because robots are taking over your job that they’re automatically going to be doing it better than you – after all, technology still makes mistakes, so as long as you’re able to adapt and perhaps change the role of what you do, for example, oversee the work the robots are doing, then you could find that you’re still able to keep your job with a little bit of a different role.
Taxi Drivers:
You may think it sounds crazy to consider the idea that a robot could overtake something like driving, but people who work as taxi drivers, Uber drivers, etc, are slowly going to find themselves being replaced by robots and driverless cars as this technology becomes more of the norm. Of course, this may not be the norm for quite some time to come, but if we’re being honest, then we know that’s definitely where the world is going, so it’s something that we need to prepare for. This doesn’t mean that if you drive a taxi or work for Uber that you’re going to be out of a job soon, it’s just something that you should be looking to adapt with because it’s always better to be prepared for these changes that are inevitable with the rise of AI and overall technology.
Engineers:
Due to the nature of different types of engineering, it was always going to be one of the first professions to embrace AI and robots in the workforce since the very idea of engineering is to make things work better and to grow with technology. Whilst engineering is going to be one of the main industries that sees this dramatic shift towards technology, robots and automation in the daily workforce, it doesn’t mean that engineers are going to be eliminated completely – it’s just some things that are able to be done more quickly and efficiently by robots, but when it comes to things like designing Statewide Bearings’ range of linear motion products, people are still going to be very much the preference for doing this kind of work, so it’s really not something you have to worry about too much until the technology is built that can do this better, and at the moment, it’s just not here.
Journalists:
This is probably one of the most surprising ones in this list because writing is something that humans do, and as much as technology is great, we know that it doesn’t have emotions and that’s what makes great writing, storytelling, and hard hitting journalism, so most people would really struggle to believe that something like an algorithm or robot would be able to write an article to the same level that a human would be able to, but this is actually proving to something that’s perfectly possible.
However, this doesn’t mean that journalists need to start worrying about their jobs – if they’re willing to move with the times and actually work alongside the robots and embrace automation and AI, then this could actually help journalists do their jobs better and create content that’s even more personalized to the reader, so this could essentially mean that in the future, instead of reading the same paper that everyone else is reading, you could be reading one that’s completely personalized to you thanks to the advances in technology that allow for the creation of this kind of content.
Chefs:
This is another area of upcoming automation and AI tech advances that’s really going to be surprising for a lot of people, and although it’s certainly not the end of chefs as we know them, things are definitely changing – perhaps for the better, which is of course going to depend on your perspective. For example, places like Burger King and Mcdonald’s have been hiring people since the beginning to carry out tasks like flipping burgers and take customer orders simply because in the past these were jobs that needed to be done by humans, but now there’s far more technology that can do this, and in many of these locations around the world, this technology has already been implemented and is proving to work well. Now, this doesn’t mean that there’s no longer a need for people to work in these places, but they can work more efficiently alongside technology.
When we think of more traditional restaurants, similar technology is being introduced – whether it’s ordering from your table using an iPad instead of having a waiter take your order, or even having robots take over some of the tasks that a chef would normallt do, it’s a great example of how people and technology can work well together.
Financial Analysts:
Like those who pursue a law career, anyone who works in the financial services or banking sectors may think they’re going to have a job made for life, but these industries are fast seeing technology and AI automation creep in. The reason why financial services are seeing such a big boost in this technology is because it really helps get things done quicker, more efficiently, and more effectively and accurately than humans can.
Although it’s predicted that over 30% of banking sector jobs will be lost to AI within the next 10 years, this doesn’t need to mean the end of a career – but simply adopting a different approach and moving with the advances instead of away from them.
Customer Service Professionals:
With more and businesses operating online and 24 hours a day, the need for solid customer services processes is increasing, but since nobody can be online 24 hours a day and hiring a team to work these round the clock hours is going to be a bit of a hassle – not to mention expensive, unless you’re some massive company, then automating this is a great idea, and luckily it’s becoming more common for tools and apps, and even AI technology or bots to be able to completely manage your customer service for you.
Medical Professionals:
At first glance, this one may seem completely crazy and even scary, but it’s honestly a much better thing than you probably think. The reason being is that medicine and the whole healthcare industry is one where we absolutely want to see as much advance as possible, and although there’s never going to be anything that can replace the role of doctors, nurses and medicine, there are certainly things that can be brought in to make, not only their jobs easier so that they’re able to focus more on the patients they’re caring for, but also this technology benefits the patients.
In some hospitals there are now robots that come in and carry out tasks like dispatching medication and bringing it to patients, taking meal orders and bringing food, but also helping with things like surgery so that these procedures are less invasive and make for shorter healing times than in previous times. The use of AI and robots in medical care is one area where it should definitely be welcomed.
The first principle of my blog is Creating Ecosystems of success and a key area of focuse is Career Discussions. At some point or another, most of us have to look for jobs. In addition to having the appropriate qualifications, its also important to make your searches as simple as possible. The following contributed post discusses this and is entitled, Simple Ways To Narrow Down Your Job Search.
When you’re looking for a new job, there is no point in applying for roles that you are unlikely to get. There is no point in trawling job sites that don’t contain the positions you are looking for. There’s no point filling out endless application forms for a job that, considering who you are as a person, are never going to fulfil you.
Instead, you need to narrow down your job search, so you don’t a) waste time with applications and interviews for jobs you aren’t suited to, and b) don’t end up in a position that you are likely to quit in several months time.
To narrow down your job search…
Think about the kind of jobs that would motivate you. What kind of job will get you out of bed in the morning? What kind of job would you enjoy doing? It might be a job that allows you to follow your passions. Or it might be a role in a career where you can help others. Whatever it is, think about the jobs that will excite you, look at the appropriate job sites or do a Google search for companies near you, get the qualifications needed, and then start applying.
Think about the skills you possess. When you know what your skills are, you will then be able to target those vocations and industries that you know you are suited for. So, if you have a head for numbers, you may be eligible for accounting jobs. Should you have a flair for cooking, you might want to consider a career in catering. You may have picked up skills in both your personal life and work life, so list them, and consider the types of jobs you could apply to. You might need to get extra qualifications, but as many jobs offer these as part of in-job training, you might still apply if you know you have skills particular employers will be interested in.
Think about your current position. If you are currently happy in your career but looking for advancement, you might want to focus your job search on those roles that will advance rather than downgrade your career. There might be roles within other companies in your chosen industry that are more senior than your current position, so rather than trawling the job pages, why not directly approach these other businesses? Or network with others at industry meetings and conferences, as after all, sometimes it’s not what you know but who you know! You might also reach out on social media, using LinkedIn to network with other professionals within your industry.
Think about your lifestyle. Do you have a family to consider? Do you want a better work-life balance? If either of these things is true, you might want to look for jobs that are closer to home. You might want to target part-time rather than full-time positions. And you might want to look for those jobs that will give you greater flexibility for your lifestyle. Narrow down your job search, and look for those roles that will help you meet both your personal and work goals.
Don’t waste time trawling job sites that don’t contain what you’re looking for. Don’t waste your time applying for jobs that are above or below your pay grade. And don’t waste your time sitting in interviews for jobs you don’t want or are not really eligible for. Using the tips in this article, save time by narrowing down your job search, and move into those positions that are better suited to you.
The first principle of my blog is Creating Ecosystems of Success and two key focuses are Career Discussions and General Education. A very valuable and lesser known skill when you start a business or when you get out into the professional world, is the ability to multi-task or manage multiple projects at once. The following contributed post discusses this and is entitled, Managing More Than One Project.
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As a project manager, you are going to face numerous challenges throughout your career. Often, managing one project can be challenging and stressful enough. However, when you add even more projects to the mix, the stresses and strains only multiply. Managing a number of different projects at the same time can most definitely be a challenge. However, if you follow the advice provided below, you should find it a lot easier.
Embrace project management training – There is only one place to begin, and this is with project management training. Project management courses today are designed to equip you with all of the knowledge, strategies, and technologies required to deal with any challenge that comes your way, from remote team management to handling numerous projects at once. It does not matter how long you have been in this career, a refresher course could be just the thing you need to be able to manage multiple projects at once.
Keep distractions to a minimum – It is vital to keep distractions to a minimum at all times, but this is even more so the case when you are managing numerous projects at once. You can use tools like this calendar for HR professionals to assist. There are lots of things that can get in the way of your working day. This includes ad hoc tasks, non-strategic meetings, idle conversation, and emails that are not related to the projects you are working on. Ask yourself: is this task something that is contributing to the bigger picture/meeting the project objectives? If not, it is likely that you are simply wasting your time. To cut down on these sorts of activities, you should make sure you only have meetings when essential, use a centralised scheduling process, and schedule breaks throughout the working day.
Improve communication – Communication is critical to the success of any project, and it is even more pivotal when you are working on more than one project at the same time. You must have a robust communication channel and strategy in place for all team members. Efficient communication regarding new developments, changes, and such like, are a necessity, as they are likely to impact the implementation of the project. A group collaboration tool will come in very useful here, but you need to make sure that everyone is using the software appropriately and effectively. It is a good idea to get your team members to provide a status update of every task they are working on per day. This will ensure that everyone is aware of the project status and that all team members are on the same page. It also makes it easy for you to have an overview of each project so you know exactly where each project is.
Hopefully, you now feel more prepared for managing numerous projects at once. While this can seem incredibly daunting, there is no need to stress. Follow the advice that has been given, and you should find it a lot easier to keep on top of everything.
The first principle of my blog is Creating Ecosystems of Success and two key focuses are Career Discussions and General Education. A skill that’s very important today is the ability to give presentations. Many professionals make it out into the workforce without learning how to give quality presentations. The following contributed post is thus entitled, Avoiding Death By PowerPoint: 5 Presentation Mistakes To Avoid.
Want to avoid boring your audience to death during your next work PowerPoint presentation? Here are a few common mistakes to avoid in order to keep your presentation engaging.
Breaking the 10-20-30 rule
There is a rule that governs the practice of PowerPoint presentations – it was established by Guy Kawasaki and it is known as The 10-20-30 Rule. This rule states that if you want to keep your presentation engaging you should never include more than 10 slides, never go on for longer than 20 minutes and never use a font size less than 30. This helps to keep things short and snappy so that you never overstay your welcome. Unless you’ve been specifically asked to give a longer presentation or to use more slides, try not to break this rule.
Using generic templates and stock images
Many PowerPoint templates are overly familiar to the point that they are distracting. If you want to maintain a unique feel, you’re probably best off not using PowerPoint at all. There are many other presentation platforms that are worth trying out – many of these come with interesting themes to download as found at this list of The 70 Best Free Google Slides Themes Of 2019.
On top of generic presentation templates, avoid using stock images as these too can dull-ify your presentation. Rather than using the same cliched images of employees shaking hands, use images that offer interesting metaphors or images that help to tell a story.
Reading directly off the slides
Any slides you use should be treated as prompts or additional information – they should not be treated as a script. By reading the slides, not only are you not looking at the audience but you’re telling information that they can read themselves (in which case, you’d be better off sending an email). Focus your attention on your audience and try to rehearse what you’re going to say without having to read anything (you can have notes, but you should use these as pointers and similarly not use them as a script). Having to speak to audience can be scary, but it will help you to connect to them and get them interested.
Failing to connect on an emotional level
Some presentations can be a little too heavy handed when it comes to facts and figures. The emotional connection can then get lost and your audience will start to feel that they’re been given a long-winded report. Try to connect on an emotional level by sharing stories and giving relatable information. For example, if you’re giving a seminar on conserving energy in the home, don’t just reel of figures but make people aware of the benefit this will have on their lives and the planet.
Losing track of the presentation’s purpose
Some presentations can end up going off-topic. It’s important to remember the key objective of your presentation and to answer any questions that you raised at the beginning. Your audience will zone out if they feel the presentation has lost its sense of purpose, so don’t get side-tracked.
The first principle of my blog is Creating Ecosystems of Success and a key area is Career Discussions. In some instances individuals can become unhappy in their careers and at work. Is the only option to quit? Not necessarily. The following contributed post is entitled, Unhappy at Work? Here’s What to Do.
Work takes up a significant amount of your time and if you are unhappy, you must make a change. There is no point in going through life feeling like things could be better and doing nothing about it!
Being unhappy at work can have a massive knock-on effect on the rest of your life. If you are anxious and stressed at work, you will almost certainly be anxious and stressed at home. If you are feeling bored and uninspired at work, you can guarantee that your home life will be boring too.
The good news is that there is a simple formula to find your way to happiness once again. In just 3 steps, you should be able to see a much brighter future ahead.
Isolate the Problem
There are all kinds of reasons that you might be unhappy at work. Perhaps you feel that you don’t have enough of a challenge or maybe you are feeling overworked. It may be that you don’t get on very well with your manager or colleagues or even that you are being overwhelmed by the social commitments expected of you. No matter what it is, you should try to isolate the specific problem before you do anything else.
Often, people who are unhappy at work begin to internalise their worries and feel that they are to blame. Employees who are stressed out and overworked often feel that they are bad at their jobs and don’t realise that they could do an excellent job elsewhere. Similarly, if you aren’t getting on with your colleagues, you may feel socially inept. By isolating the problems you are having at work, you will be able to see that the problem lies with the job and not you. When you come to go for a new job, you will be able to see the warning signs and make a better choice.
Isolating the problem or problems is the best way to start working on a plan to make things better. If you are just focusing on the feeling of being unhappy and not the cause, you aren’t going to make any progress. The best action plan is based on facts not feelings.
Decide on an Action Plan
Stress and anxiety quite often stand in the way of working out an action plan but this is no problem in the long run. You just need to shift your priorities. Instead of focusing on what you need to do to make your job better, you should start by thinking about what will make your mental health better. Happily, the two things often coincide.
Breathe deeply and close your eyes. Let your mind drift for a moment but try to prevent them going into a spiral – follow the thoughts that interest you. Letting your thoughts wander is a great way to give your brain space to come up with more creative ideas and solutions. As problems at work pop up at the forefront of your mind, think about the possible solutions. You might even like to make a list you can look at later.
Some problems are easier to work through than others. For example, if you aren’t getting on with your colleagues, you might be able to talk to them about the problems you are having and clear the air. Similarly, if you want a greater challenge, you could ask to go on courses, move departments and take on more responsibilities as part of your role.
But other issues are more difficult to resolve and you may need to ask for professional help. If you are unhappy because you believe your company is acting illegally and you are planning to become a whistleblower, you will certainly need some help and should ask a lawyer for more information.
When you have a few solutions to try, you should put your plan into action. So, let’s say you are unhappy because you don’t get on with your colleagues and you don’t have enough to do. Start by asking your manager for more responsibility and suggest areas that you are particularly interested in developing. This is a good idea for several reasons but most important are that you can build up your CV and you will have less time to worry about your social issues.
Next, you should go through the process again, what is it specifically that is impeding your relationship with your colleagues? Would it help if you were to speak more clearly? Do you need to tread more carefully when you talk? Perhaps you are misunderstanding each other and there actually isn’t really a problem! Social issues at work take time to resolve but a candid chat is always a good starting point. Whatever you do – don’t gossip!
Make Positive Changes
Making just a few positive changes at work can have a real impact on how you feel. Positive changes can be as small as having a picture on your desk or as big as quitting and starting up your own business. The most important thing is that you are making the decision for the positive rather than simply escaping the negative. One of the most important rules in finding a new job that will make you happy is that you should always run to a job not away from a job.
Getting a new job is often the end goal for most people who are unhappy at work. Though it might feel like climbing a mountain every day, this is the main reason that you shouldn’t completely give up on the job you currently have. Continue to do your best and find ways to develop yourself so that when it comes to the interview, you will have plenty to talk about and impress the new company with.
As difficult as it is, try to keep looking at the positives. You might feel stuck in a rut but writing and sending off your CV will help to show you that you have plenty of skills and experience to work with. You won’t be trapped in this job forever.
One of the focuses of my blog is STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics), and my most central principle is “Creating Ecosystems of Success”. While we tend to think of clinical medicine as strictly a ‘healthcare’ profession, its foundations are actually rooted in the ‘Basic Sciences’. In late 2017, I discovered Dr. Quinn Capers IV on Twitter one day by chance and started following him when he was tweeting about medical education at the Ohio State University. The hashtag he used in most of his tweets, #BlackMenInMedicine, further piqued my curiosity.
Representation in the healthcare sector is absolutely central to bridging the gap between doctors and their patients. Representation comes in different shapes. On the one hand, solutions such as EHR systems that enable healthcare to better practice what they preach and represent medical excellence for their patients, catch our interests. But, on the other hand, a varied team of healthcare specialists from different social, racial, and economical backgrounds is also crucial for a more inclusive representation in the medical sector. Here, we discuss inclusive representation in the current medical landscape.
Last year I had the honor of interviewing Dr. Capers about his path and #BlackMenInMedicine. To see our 2018 interview go to Dr. Quinn Capers, IV discusses his path, #BlackMenInMedicine, and the present landscape of medical education. Dr. Capers recently granted me the opportunity to interview him a second time. In this follow up interview we discuss the concept of ‘Implicit Bias’, why it’s important, and the hashtag, ‘#DropAndGiveMe20’. The images in this interview were graciously shared by Dr. Capers himself. Click on any of the images to enlarge them.
Anwar Dunbar: Hello, Dr. Capers and happy New Year. I want to thank you for the opportunity to interview you again. As the Dean of Admissions at the Ohio State University’s Medical School, your words are very, very valuable, especially for students aspiring to attend medical school. Before we get into ‘Implicit Bias’, the last time we spoke we spent quite a bit of time on the hashtag #BlackMenInMedicine. I now see you using a second hastag, #DropAndGiveMe20. Where did this hashtag and the whole push-ups piece come from? Did you start that?
Quinn Capers: The #DropAndGiveMe20 campaign is a great story. I’m a big fan of Ohio State University (OSU) Football. For years, while watching the games on television, I’ve had a fun routine of doing 10 push-ups every time they score a touchdown. I picked push-ups because they don’t require equipment or much physical space. They’re a good measure of overall upper body strength and they get your heart rate up. Mostly, I wanted to feel like I was exerting myself while the players were on the field exerting themselves. It’s just fun.
I’ve done it at sports bars and experienced both strange looks and strangers joining in! In November 2017, my wife recorded me doing this after an OSU touchdown and I thought it’d be cool to put it on Twitter to spark excitement among OSU football fans. I got a few responses, but the best one was from an interventional cardiologist at UCLA, Dr. William Suh (he is now a great Twitter friend or a “Tweep”), who said he could top that; and would do 20 for every UCLA Bruin touchdown. So he did 20, then when OSU scored another touchdown, I did 20.
QC: Well, we both had Twitter followers who are cardiologists and since heart doctors love promoting exercise, they joined the fun and challenged other cardiologists. I guess you could say that Dr. Suh and I are the “co-founders” if you must, but it has grown so fast and so many are responsible for spreading it that it really is a group effort now. It grew quickly to include other specialties, non-physicians, and even patients. In fact some of the most regular and awesome participants are patients; one a heart transplant survivor. They’re simply incredible.
It grew fast under the hashtag “#DropAndGiveMe20” and it’s now international with participants all over the world posting clips from places like the following: Sydney (Australia), London, and Lagos, Nigeria. We post daily and give each other positive feedback, hold each other accountable, and promote wellness and exercise. One of my main goals is to promote exercise as a way to improve heart health and to show that you don’t have to wait to go to a gym, since it can be hard to work a full day and plan to go to a gym afterwards. I’ll usually post clips of myself doing push-ups during my work day in the cardiac cath lab, in my office between meetings, or even in an auditorium after giving a lecture. Others have posted clips in unusual settings, like at dinner parties.
AD: Nice.
QC: I’ll tell you about two of my favorite clips. There’s a very famous female cardiologist who posted clips of herself doing push-ups at the airport terminal awaiting her flight. A prominent British cardiologist topped that by doing his on a moving walkway at London’s Heathrow Airport (not recommended, by the way)! We have great fun adding humorous wrinkles to it, like adding more and more people in a clip. I suppose I took it to new heights recently when I concluded a live simulcast lecture to a group of medical residents in Cameroon by asking them to do push-ups with me! They complied and we completed what might be the first, simultaneous, international push-up session!
I also take the opportunity to share my love and knowledge of jazz, hip-hop, and R & B/Funk music. My clips are always accompanied by a musical selection from my collection. I always credit and tag the musicians (if they have a Twitter handle), hoping to spark curiosity about certain hidden gems and send my Twitter followers “digging in the crates” to support the music. I was beyond thrilled when two different artists supplying the soundtrack to my push-ups responded to my tweet, the hip hop group “Digable Planets” and saxophone legend Branford Marsalis!
It’s great fun, and a very friendly Twitter community has grown around it. We now arrange to meet up at conventions (cardiology or otherwise) and do a “#DropAndGiveMe20!” Regarding the health benefits, doing push-ups can provide positive reinforcement in a relatively short period of time. Last November I could barely do 25 at one time, now I can max out at 43. Anyone is welcome to join the fun. If you can’t do 20, start with 1 or 2 push-ups! By the way, Dr. Dunbar, you and your readers are welcome to join anytime. Just record yourself, post it on Twitter with the hashtag “#DropAndGiveMe20” and tag your colleagues to get them involved.
AD: Okay, Dr. Capers. I haven’t done push-ups in a while, but now I may have to see if I can crank out 20 (laughing).
I noticed that after starting to follow you, ‘Implicit Bias’ became something you started addressing. How did this come about? What should the general public, and particularly those looking to get into medical school, understand about it?
QC: Implicit bias is a negative or positive attitude towards a person or group that occurs outside of our awareness, intention, or control. Although these biases occur outside of our awareness, they can influence behavior, possibly resulting in well-meaning people treating others differently based on race, gender, age, etc. I came across the concept as a cardiologist interested in racial healthcare disparities. Disparities have many causes, like social determinants of health, housing discrimination, unequal access to the best care, outright racism (explicit bias) of practitioners, structural bias in the healthcare system, etc.
I became intrigued with the notion of implicit or unconscious bias and its potential role in unequal treatment. Several studies have shown that a physician’s unconscious association of negative thoughts or words with a particular race or gender can be associated with therapeutic decisions that are harmful to persons in that group. For instance, one widely quoted paper had physicians take the computer-based implicit association test (IAT) that’s designed to uncover implicit associations or biases (free, available at implicit.harvard.edu) and then review case vignettes of a black or white male suffering from a heart attack.
Doctors were asked if they thought the symptoms of chest discomfort were indicative of a heart problem and if they’d treat the patient with a life-saving drug to terminate the heart attack. Physicians whose IAT showed “implicit white race preference” or an unconscious association of a white person’s face with good words (love, joy, warmth) and a black person’s face with bad words (danger, misery, trouble) were less likely to treat the black patient with the drug despite the black and white patients having identical presentations (1). It is important to note that this is not racism, which is a conscious, explicit bias. But implicit bias can potentially have life-and-death consequences in healthcare. While not all studies of implicit bias show an association with a doctor’s decision-making, enough do to cause alarm.
AD: That’s interesting.
QC: In addition to being a cardiologist I have the great privilege of serving as the Associate Dean for Admissions at the Ohio State University (OSU) College of Medicine, and I’m responsible for overseeing the recruitment, interview, and selection processes for our incoming medical students. When I reviewed a paper that showed that approximately 70% of a large group of physicians taking the IAT have implicit white race preference (2), I immediately pictured our medical school admissions committee and the fact that it is composed largely of physicians, and I had several questions: Do the physicians charged with the awesome responsibility of deciding who will become a doctor have implicit racial biases? If so, to what extent? If so, might it influence their decision-making and put black and Hispanic applicants at a disadvantage?
We set out to answer these questions and had our entire committee take the race IAT in 2012. Aggregate results revealed that a significant portion of the committee (between 50 and 70%) had an implicit white race preference. Next, Dr. Anthony Greenwald, implicit bias expert and one of the inventors of the IAT, led the committee in a discussion of implicit bias and how to reduce it. In the very next cycle we matriculated the most racially diverse class in the history of the college, suggesting that we are able to overcome implicit biases. This was the first paper to document the presence and extent of implicit racial bias in the medical school admissions process (3).
Our results indicated to us that we could have what we thought was a fair, objective process, on the surface, but that unconscious biases could put certain groups of candidates at a disadvantage. Since then we’ve had robust discussions about implicit bias and annual workshops on bias mitigation. I recently completed a training program leading to certification to moderate implicit bias workshops, and I do so twice a month. This goes beyond admissions and is open to the entire medical center. So far we have trained over 1,000 physicians, nurses, staff and students in bias mitigation strategies. It is a real passion and we are trying to make a difference.
QC: We’re always tweaking the curriculum to help produce physicians who are ready to advance healthcare. We’re on the cusp of a new expansion with blueprints for a new hospital building and a health professions education building. And finally, we are continuing to leverage the fact that we have one of the most diverse medical student bodies in the country to enhance medical education and community outreach. In other words, we are continuing our forward progress.
Thank you for the opportunity to share some thoughts with you and your readers. Best wishes for a happy, healthy new year!
AD: Thank you, Dr. Capers. I look forward to talking again and trying the push-up challenge.
Thank you for taking the time to read this interview. If you’ve enjoyed this, you might also enjoy:
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