Never underestimate the power of showing up!

The Power of Face-to-Face Meetings in a Digital World 

In this modern-day digital age, there’s a case to be made for communicating via video conferences, phone calls, and emails. Traveling to attend in-person meetings can be stressful, not to mention time consuming and expensive.

A white paper by Verizon Conferencing found a five-person meeting conducted in-person (involving plane travel for four of the attendees) is over seven times more expensive than a meeting conducted by audio conference and three times as expensive as a video conference.

The average attendee also spent 53 hours and 24 minutes preparing for and travelling to the in-person event, which is about three times the time involved in either the audio or video meeting. Verizon noted:

“The price of traveling to meeting after meeting is also paid in the currencies of lost productivity, wasted time, unattended-to work at the office, and time away from home and family – not to mention the stress and frustration involved in travel itself.”

Yet, despite their clear advantages in terms of efficiency, monetary savings, and convenience, audio and video conferences may not provide the same impact that a face-to-face meeting can provide.

Perhaps that’s why 87 percent of those surveyed by Verizon said they most prefer to meet in-person, and in-person meetings were ranked as more productive than their virtual counterparts.

In-Person Meetings Allow Your Brain to Synchronize with Others

Researchers from Beijing Normal University pointed out that face-to-face communication differs from other forms of communication in two key ways:

·       Face-to-face communication involves the integration of “multimodal sensory information,” such as nonverbal cues (facial expressions, gestures, etc.)

·       Face-to-face communication involves more continuous turn-taking behaviors between partners, which has been shown to play a pivotal role in social interactions and reflects the level of involvement of a person in the communication

These factors are critical to effective communication and may even play a role in helping to synchronize your brain with others in your conversation. In fact, research has shown a significant increase in the neural synchronization between the brains of two partners during face-to-face, but not during other types of, conversation.

According to the study, which was published in The Journal of Neuroscience:

“These results suggest that face-to-face communication, particularly dialog, has special neural features that other types of communication do not have and that the neural synchronization between partners may underlie successful face-to-face communication.”

Interestingly, this neural synchronization is also thought to play a key role in leader emergence, with those emerging as leaders synchronizing their brain activity with followers to a greater degree than occurs between followers and other followers.

The quality of the communication was found to be a more important contributor to neural synchronization than the quantity of communication. This suggests that perhaps even infrequent in-person meetings may have more of an impact than frequent digital meetings.

The Unconscious Elements of Face-to-Face Meetings May Trump Even Language

Researchers from MIT’s Human Dynamics Laboratory, including Alex Pentland and colleagues, have further revealed that face-to-face meetings allow members to come up with more ideas and become more capable as a group compared to virtual meetings. As Newsweek reported:

“The deep, often unconscious elements of in-person interaction are more important than language. Pentland and his team have studied hundreds of groups in face-to-face meetings where participants wear sociometric badges, unobtrusive devices that record unspoken social signals ,

Who’s talking, how much, in what tone, interrupting or not, facing toward whom and away from whom, and gesturing how — but don’t record what people say.

That turns out not to matter. Pentland’s remarkable finding is that ‘usually we can completely ignore the content of discussions and use only the visible social signals to predict the outcome of a negotiation or a sales pitch, the quality of group decision making, and the roles people assume within the group.’

What matters are the many ways we connect only when we’re physically together.”

You might argue that you can still “read” a person’s facial expressions over video chat, but research suggests something is still lost in translation. For instance, in a study of brainstorming sessions done face-to-face, over the phone, or via video chat, the face-to-face sessions produced significantly more creative ideas. Face-to-face pairs generated about 30 percent more ideas than virtual pairs.

Face-to-Face Meetings Are Best for Creativity

Meeting in person allows for increased eye contact, which builds increased trust and encourages group members to confide in and co-create with their group. Research published in the International Journal of Organizational Design and Engineering found:

“ … [T]he more team members directly interact with each other face-to-face, and the more they trust other team members, the more creative and of higher quality the result of their teamwork is.”

The power of face-to-face meetings has not been lost on some of the most successful corporations in the world. The late Steve Jobs, founder of Apple, is said to have designed workspaces in order to force people to have more in-person interactions.

Google also serves its employees free food in cafeterias, in part to encourage them to stay on campus and mingle with their co-workers over lunch. Yahoo even made headlines in 2013 for, controversially, banning telecommuting for its employees. At that time, Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer said in a memo:

“Some of the best decisions and insights come from hallway and cafeteria discussions, meeting new people, and impromptu team meetings. Speed and quality are often sacrificed when we work from home. We need to be one Yahoo!, and that starts with physically being together.”

Harvard Cites Benefits of ‘The Water Cooler Effect’ on Scientific Research

Colleagues who spend more time in close proximity, able to chat around the water cooler, so to speak, may even produce better research, according to Harvard Medical School researchers.

After examining data from 35,000 biomedical science papers, they found more personal contact, particularly between the article’s first and last authors, led to more citations generated (the number of citations generated per scientific paper is used as a gauge of article quality). They concluded:

“Despite the positive impact of emerging communication technologies on scientific research, our results provide striking evidence for the role of physical proximity as a predictor of the impact of collaborations.”

Is There a ‘Goldilocks Zone’ for Telecommuting?

Telecommuting is becoming increasingly popular among employers and employees a like. While 50 percent of companies allowed telecommuting in 2008, this had risen to 67 percent in 2014.

While increased telecommuting offers greater flexibility to workers and may save companies money in overhead costs, it also takes away valuable time for face-to-face interactions among employees. Is there a “happy medium” that might provide benefits all around?

A poll conducted by Gallup suggests there may be. It found people who work remotely report being more engaged, enthusiastic, and committed to their work, provided they work remotely 20 percent of their working hours or less. It seems one key to telecommuting successfully may be to spend more time working in the office than out of it. As Money reported:

“On one hand, it [Gallup’s poll] found evidence of added productivity from those working outside the office: People actually work more hours at home, in part because they weren’t commuting or running errands at lunch. Some of the productivity increase also comes from being away from office distractions, says Gallup CEO Jim Clifton.

But there is a point of diminishing returns, adds Clifton. People who spend 50 percent or more of their time working off site are less engaged than in-office counterparts and people who spend all of their time working remotely are twice as likely to feel disconnected from their work, Gallup found.”

In-Person Interactions Are Important in Your Personal Life, Too

Much of the research on the benefits of face-to-face interactions surrounds their role in the business world, but don’t forget these benefits apply to your personal life too. Loneliness, a feeling of being disconnected from those around you and wishing you had that connection, is on the rise and can put your health – both physical and emotional – at risk.

While people are increasingly turning to social media as a way to connect with friends and family, be sure you are also taking time to have those irreplaceable face-to-face visits with those you care about. Psych Central explained:

“It is often difficult, if not impossible, on social media to reveal the qualities that define deep, intimate relationships. While our social media friends offer us a great deal, it is not a true substitute or even supplement for real-life interactions with others. Social support can be a strong predictor of positive mental health. Emotional support has been shown to protect us from a wide array of both psychiatric and physical ailments.

But unlike online friendships, real-life relationships take time and effort. They help us learn about others and ultimately ourselves. Online friendships, while certainly valuable in many ways, lack the ability to provide us with opportunities for deep and lasting emotional closeness. So accept and seek out your online friends, rekindle lost connections, and revisit childhood friendships, as long as it is not at the expense of nurturing and deepening your real-life relationships.”

Article by Dr Mercola

http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2015/10/08/face-to-face-meetings.aspx

The importance of Ambition

Here is very different perspective and shift of focus that I really like.

While this was posted with young people in mind it is in fact a question and conversation that is relevant to everyone.

Ambition is important and it comes from a sense of purpose in your life. 

A sense of purpose flows from a search for meaning and significance and all of this begins with 'know thyself'.

This why I am so passionate about the importance of personality profiling and the feedback it offers people to better understand themselves and their God given gifts.

It is for this reason that we have been able to provide access to a My Future Finder career report thanks to the University of New England.

Check it out yourself, you may be surprised by the feedback you get.

5 Better Ways to Describe Your Entry-Level Position on Your Resume

Describing an entry-level position on your resume is tricky. After all, there’s a good chance your main responsibilities aren’t super important to your company’s overall success. And they therefore don’t sound all that impressive to a stranger. While you might be tempted to make them sound bigger and better than they really are—don’t. That lie will catch up with you at some (embarrassing) point in the interview proce.

But don’t worry, all hope is not lost! We’ve got five techniques for accurately, yet strategically representing your entry-level job.

1. Describe How You Furthered Company Goals

At the end of the day, you were hired for one reason: To make the company more money. That means no matter what you work on, you can highlight how it helps your organization achieve its goals.

Let’s say you’re a Client Support Specialist. Every day, you answer questions, solve problems, and follow up on complaints from customers.

So, how does that help your organization make money? Well, not only does what you do make customers happier (which drives brand loyalty), it also lessens the chance a frustrated customer will stop buying or using your product.

Once you’ve got your answer, it’s easy to turn it into a resume bullet:

Improved customer retention by providing warm, helpful, relevant customer support via phone, email, and chat.

2. Describe a Specific Incident

Everyone has a success story. Maybe it’s the time when a customer was so satisfied he sent you a handwritten letter, or the time your boss was so pleased with your work she told her boss, or when a couple co-workers officially named you “Most Helpful Person in the Office.”

These smaller success stories deserve to be on your resume, especially if you’re not far enough along in your career to have promotions or huge awards to mention.

Think about your “small but cool” successes (a.k.a, what you brag to your parents about after a good day at work). Then, turn it into a bullet.

For example, if you work in HR:

Played key role in recruiting two interns to work full-time at company after graduation.

3. Describe Who You Worked With

No job exists in isolation—and typically, entry-level employees work with a bunch of other people on their level. This is awesome for resume purposes, because you can use it to display your capacity for teamwork.

Start by thinking about who you depend on to do your job, and who depends on you to do their job. After you’ve created a list, create a bullet that describes these relationships. (And note that you should use job titles rather than specific names.)

If you’re a UX designer, that would be something along the lines of:

Work closely with UI, visual, and motion designers, UX researcher, front-end developers, and product manager to create visually appealing, easy-to-use, entertaining mobile app.

4. Describe What Your Superiors Said

Most people don’t know you can use the praise and positive feedback they’ve gotten from their superiors on your resume. But you definitely can—it’s a great way to reinforce one or two of the traits that make you a great employee.

Hopefully, you’ve been tracking and recording all the nice things your managers have been saying to you in your performance reviews. If not, no worries! Grab a sheet of paper and write down all the compliments you remember receiving. For more material, you should also take a look at emails and performance review records.

Let’s say you’re a sales rep, and your boss is always raving about how you can forge a genuine connection with any client—even if the two of you seemingly have nothing in common.

In resume bullet form, this would look like:

Recognized by supervisor for ability to create rapport with every client, which led to higher sales and greater client satisfaction.

(The key word? “Recognized.” You want to stay away from “honored” or “awarded,” since those imply you got an official award!)

5. Describe Your Job in Numbers

If you’ve been reading The Muse for any period of time, you probably know we’re big fans of quantifying your resume bullets. However, when you work in an entry-level position, this isn’t so easy to pull off. After all, you probably didn’t “save company $4K a month by reconfiguring expense tracking process” or “decrease client churn rate by 20%.”

That’s okay! You don’t need accomplishments to quantify your bullets—you can also use duties.

For example, if you’re an assistant editor, think about how many pieces you edit each week.

Edit approximately 15 articles per week for style, content, clarity, grammar, and formatting.

Or if you work as an office manager:

Promote tight-knit team culture by creating, planning, and executing 3 company-wide events per year.

If you’re still having trouble, write down your most time-consuming or important responsibilities. Then for each one, ask yourself, How much?

As you can see, there’s no reason why your entry-level job can’t sound awesome.

By Aja Frost

So just how important is your resume in your career transition?

Many people have the mistaken belief that the job interview is the most important step in their career transition process, perhaps because it is closer to the point where you are finally accepted or rejected for the position. They expend a lot of effort and mental energy focussing on the interview.

However a resume counts significantly in determining your perceived suitability for a position because a properly written resume should showcase your unique set of competencies and achievements. A job interview on the other hand provides more insight into your interpersonal skills and rapport. At the same time some interview questions will be based on what you did (or did not) include in your resume.

Your resume is vital in the selection process because it is the only step where you have full control over the information you present. A well written resume should be tailored to your particular demonstrated strengths and achievements. This still applies if you have a LinkedIn Profile because all your resume content should be carefully synchronised with your LinkedIn profile.

Every person has their own invisible 'modesty barrier' that can sometimes prevent them from seeing, acknowledging and showcasing their unique mixture of strengths, competencies and achievements. Many people take for granted important things that need to be clearly stated in their resume.

A well constructed resume data collection form may assist to draw out important information (we begin the resume process with a data collection form for all our clients)  but even this can take considerable mental effort and focus. A vital step in developing a tailored resume is to have a professional consultation that can draw out your important competencies and achievements.

While a personal consultation can be done over the phone where time and or travel distance may be an issue, the best way to draw out the 'hidden gold' in a person is with a face to face consultation where the special chemistry of 'showing up' kicks in.

Making the effort at the start with your resume will in fact better equip you for the job interview because even though your resume may make you feel a little 'uncomfortable' it will be loaded with the important things that you will be able to speak about with confidence and conviction.

We understand this can be a significant investment of your time and money in your career transition first step. To help people begin this process we make available a complimentary resume review and short phone consultation to see exactly where you may need assistance.

Visit our website for more details: http://www.eaglesconsulting.com.au/myresume/

Ever wondered what is the Best (and Worst) Font to use on your Resume?

A resume is one of the places where people still tend to use typeface to express themselves. It does not always go well, according to people who spend a lot of time looking at fonts.

After asking around we returned with just one consensus winner: Helvetica.

“Helvetica is so no-­fuss, it doesn’t really lean in one direction or another. It feels professional, lighthearted, honest,” says Brian Hoff, creative director of Brian Hoff Design. “Helvetica is safe."

There are other options that, like Helvetica, are sans-­serif, meaning their letters do not have the tiny "feet" that adorn the "T" in Times New Roman, for example.

Garamond is legible and easy for the eye to follow and to see where it should go.

Times New Roman has the reputation of being staid, it has been a system font for a long time. Using old faithful might send the wrong sign to your future boss, telegraphing that you didn’t put any thought into the typeface that you selected.

If you want something intentionally upscale, try Didot. It’s very tall, it’s a little fancy and it’s a little feminine. It’s a good option for a fashion job.

It may go without saying, but do not use the flowery Zapfino type on anything you will show an employer.  Do not even use anything that looks like Zapfino, all the fonts belonging to this family of connected scripts wouldn’t be right for your resume. They are hard to read, and not designed to express anything longer than a headline.

Don’t use Courier, you don’t have a typewriter, so don’t try to pretend that you have a typewriter.

We probably do not even need to discuss this, but you should never use Comic Sans unless you are designing the investment issue of a national business magazine. Do not even look at Comic Sans. It should not be on your resume unless you are applying to clown college.

The other fonts we use from time to time when preparing resumes for clients are Calibri and Cambria both of which a similar to Helvetica.

The only other rule to remember when doing your resume is do not mix fonts and do not through in italics because it can cause formatting problems and affect the readability and flow of your resume.

If you are now wondering how your resume looks why not take advantage of our complimentary resume review service and get some honest feedback.

http://www.eaglesconsulting.com.au/myresume/