You’ve unwrapped your gifts, returned from an airport where you probably spent more time than at your intended destination and are ready to begin the New Year. You’re filled with a resolve to… to do what? Why? And how differently will you do it?

If you’ve had a little breathing space during the holidays you may have given serious thought to how you’d like to be in the coming year. Perhaps you’ve made a list of resolutions, vowing to make substantive changes in the ways you relate to others, in the career directions you’ll take, and how you’ll want to feel about yourself as you make those changes.

If you’re like most people, the best of intentions, toward self and others, seem to last a few weeks and are then replaced by the creep of day to day events that work their way into the crevices of determination and focus.  Old habits are back and it’s business as usual.

Many of us don’t want to promise to do anything differently. We’ve disappointed others and ourselves too often to willingly take that route again.

Others would rather not think about doing anything differently since that would suggest what we were doing and where we were heading was in some way flawed. We want to move ahead, accepting our mistakes and celebrating our luck the same way we always have.

And then there are those of us who just can’t think of anything that we want to do differently. It’s not that we’re refusing the notion or avoiding the consequence, it’s just that things are rocking along pretty well. Why think, why promise, and why tinker?

If you live somewhere between the  “if I ain’t broke why fix me” folks and those who are constantly reinventing themselves, here are a few resolutions you might want to consider:

If I’m too passive and miss out on opportunities that could be mine, I’m going to get out there and make them happen.

If I don’t know how to become more sure of myself and confident in my actions, I’ll learn from people who do it best. I’ll practice by making mistakes and learning from them. I’ll admit when I’m wrong and take credit when I’m right.

I’ll forgive people more quickly and ask that they do the same for me. If they won’t, I’ll work hard to change the outcome I created. If I can’t, I’ll learn from it and move beyond it.

When I need to learn more than I know, I’ll take the initiative and get the knowledge I want without waiting for others to teach me.

I’ll learn to respect myself and others. I’ll become more aware that what happens around me affects more than just me. I’ll ask people I trust to tell me how can I help, and what can I do, to become a more effective player, regardless of the game.

Sometimes it’s easier to resolve what you won’t do instead of what you will. For example:

I won’t have to get fired to learn what I value about my job.

I won’t quit when I’m frustrated.

I won’t use anger to keep fear away.

I won’t break something to avoid fixing it.

I won’t argue so that I can be heard.

I won’t shout others down when I don’t want to listen to what they say.

I won’t let illness teach me to value each day.

I won’t be less than I can be, so others can be more.

I won’t measure my worth at the expense of others.

You can become who you want to be, without having to deny others encouragement, support, and respect. You can choose to live a full, productive life that embraces all that is good in yourself and others.

It’s not how you word it; it’s how you work it.

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Yes! You may use this article by Executive and Career Coach, Joyce Richman, in your blog, article in your blog, newsletter or website as long as you include the following bio box:

Joyce Richman (www.richmanresources.com) has been specializing in executive and career coaching since she started her own practice in 1982. She works in a variety of environments including: higher education, manufacturing, sales, marketing, media, technology, pharmaceuticals, medicine, banking and finance, service, IT, and non-profit sectors. A member of the adjunct faculty at the Center for Creative Leadership, Joyce is certified to administer a number of feedback and psychological instruments. Joyce is a weekly guest on WFMY-TV and the career columnist for The Greensboro News & Record. She is the author of Roads, Routes and Ruts: A Guidebook to Career Success and co-author of Getting Your Kid Out of the House and Into a Job. A popular speaker, Richman conducts seminars and workshops throughout the United States, Canada and Europe. Her coaching profile can be found at TheCoachingAssociation.com

Would all the do-ers, please, please, sit down?

Stop fixing. Stop lifting. Stop starting. We’re tired of watching you do our work for us. And we let you get away with it, because you insist that it has to be done your way. Where’s the creativity in that?

You thought we were lazy, procrastinatin’, good-fer-nuthin’s. No, we’re smart, somewhat lazy (unless really inspired, then we’ll drill through steel to get what we want), procrastinating on select tasks, and good for plenty.

We frustrate you, don’t we?

You frustrate us, too.

You’re always coloring inside the lines, checking your watches, micromanaging us like gnats on nits. Don’t you know that we’d get the job done better, faster, more creatively, without your ever so helpful corrections, additions, deletions, and finalizations on everything that we do?

Want to know how to make us more productive?

Say it once.

Tell us when you want it.

The more room you give us, the more space we’ll take, so be very clear about your expectations.

And get out of the way.

By the way, we’ve noticed that you’re pretty stingy with compliments. It helps to let us know that you value our contributions without always adding a zinger to it: “Tom, you did a great job on the XYZ project. Now if you’d do that all the time, you’d be a great employee!” Now, that hurts, boss. That hurts.

Since we’re on a roll here, let’s talk about how you ask us questions. You don’t. You make statements that end with question marks. Those don’t count. For example: ”You’re going to complete that by Friday, aren’t you?”

Is there a question there? I don’t think so.

And you say this one a lot: ”You agree with me, don’t you?”

No, I don’t. But I don’t have the energy to argue about it every time.

Boss, we like open-ended questions. They’re the kind that don’t have a black or white answers. We like to ramble for awhile, and look at the possibilities without having to take a stand. We can’t help but notice that makes you a little uncomfortable.

We’re not like you. We thought that was why you hired us. In fact, here’s what you said at the interview: “We’re looking for folks who can think out of the box. We want employees who can find optional ways to solve problems. We need some spontaneity around here because we tend to get stuck in our own rut.”

That’s what you said, and that’s what  you got. Now you’re trying to change us into you. And that’s not going to happen.

But we can make this work if we bring what we do best to the table:

When you’re in a rush to take action, you’re not apt to think through the consequences. We can help you with that.

We tend to go back and forth when it comes to making decisions because we’re looking at all the options. You can help us clarify the issues that will move us along.

You tend to see people and things as either good or bad, right or wrong. We do a better job in the gray zone, and can see the value they all bring to the table.

We tend to overdo what we do well and procrastinate when we’re uncomfortable. You can help us define our priorities based upon what others need from us rather than solely on what we expect of ourselves.

You’re comfortable with rules and boundaries and do your best work within them. We prefer level playing fields with space and opportunity, to design and create what’s possible.

When we work toward the same goal and want the same outcome, we can work side by side, without limitation or hindrance. The only time we can get in trouble is when one of us believes that we have the one answer and the other one doesn’t. We’re too smart to let that happen.

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Yes! You may use this article by Executive and Career Coach, Joyce Richman, in your blog, article in your blog, newsletter or website as long as you include the following bio box:

Joyce Richman (www.richmanresources.com) has been specializing in executive and career coaching since she started her own practice in 1982. She works in a variety of environments including: higher education, manufacturing, sales, marketing, media, technology, pharmaceuticals, medicine, banking and finance, service, IT, and non-profit sectors. A member of the adjunct faculty at the Center for Creative Leadership, Joyce is certified to administer a number of feedback and psychological instruments. Joyce is a weekly guest on WFMY-TV and the career columnist for The Greensboro News & Record. She is the author of Roads, Routes and Ruts: A Guidebook to Career Success and co-author of Getting Your Kid Out of the House and Into a Job. A popular speaker, Richman conducts seminars and workshops throughout the United States, Canada and Europe. Her coaching profile can be found at TheCoachingAssociation.com.

We haven’t had a heart to heart about resumes in a while and it’s high time that we did. What you’re sending out isn’t getting the response you deserve. Here are just a few of the reasons why that’s happening:

• You may not know the difference between a resume and a promotional piece.
• You’re using the dump and stir method (dump it all in, stir it around, and let the reader figure it out).
• You’re providing information that only a mother could love.

What can you do? Let’s start with the basics.

What is the difference between a resume and a promotional piece?

A resume is a synopsis of your work history. It begins with right now and goes back in time; fifteen years is far enough. You don’t need to introduce it with a summary, it’s already a summary. You don’t need to include an objective unless you are changing career directions. If you include one, make it clear, concise, and to the point. If it sounds self promoting, leave it out.

Each work entry should be accompanied by a brief series of accomplishments that are described in measurable, quantifiable terms. Resumes are built on facts. That’s what separates them from puff pieces.

Grammatically speaking, write in the active voice, go heavy on action verbs, light on adjectives, and leave out articles and personal pronouns.

You probably know to keep your resumes brief and on point. You aren’t an exception to that rule, so please, comply.

Only you know which jobs most closely match what you do best. If you put every skill imaginable into your resume, you send a message that you don’t know.  Prospective employers, search firms, and employment agencies have neither the time nor desire to figure that out for you.

If you’re not sure where you’re taking your career, get help. Get it before you write a resume. Get it before you network. Get it before you interview for a job.

We’ve reviewed several thousand resumes over the years. Many are attention getting for all the right reasons: they’re easily read,  clear, succinct, forthright presentations of experience and accomplishments.

Others are attention getting for the wrong reasons: they’re overwritten, overloaded, and over the top. Put these under the category of “resumes only a mother could love”.  Here are a few examples of please don’t:

• Please don’t include the names of your children, partners, spouses, or pets, in any order.
• Please don’t include more hobbies than the time it takes to do them, particularly if you intend to hold a job at the same time.
• Please don’t list arcane activities, organizations, or societies. They don’t mean anything to the majority of those who read these things.
• Please don’t include your social, political, or religious affiliations. Omit your age, the date of your high school graduation, and that glamour shot you love so much. You are providing more information than is appropriate to the workplace.

Here are a few please do’s.

• Please (always) send  a cover letter along with your resume. (Your cover letter gets to brag and your resume doesn’t dare).
• Please have a human spell check your resume after technology has finished the job. (Humans understand syntax better than machines do).
• Please stop procrastinating!

Many folks delay the inevitable when the assignment seems ambiguous, the outcome can’t be measured, and the product will be judged by strangers. It’s a wonder that anyone writes a resume.

Nevertheless, the time is now, the subject is you, and no one can say it better than you can. If you need more help than books or computer software can provide, call a career counselor.

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Yes! You may use this article by Executive and Career Coach, Joyce Richman, in your blog, article in your blog, newsletter or website as long as you include the following bio box:

Joyce Richman (www.richmanresources.com) has been specializing in executive and career coaching since she started her own practice in 1982. She works in a variety of environments including: higher education, manufacturing, sales, marketing, media, technology, pharmaceuticals, medicine, banking and finance, service, IT, and non-profit sectors. A member of the adjunct faculty at the Center for Creative Leadership, Joyce is certified to administer a number of feedback and psychological instruments. Joyce is a weekly guest on WFMY-TV and the career columnist for The Greensboro News & Record. She is the author of Roads, Routes and Ruts: A Guidebook to Career Success and co-author of Getting Your Kid Out of the House and Into a Job. A popular speaker, Richman conducts seminars and workshops throughout the United States, Canada and Europe. Her coaching profile can be found at TheCoachingAssociation.com.

Sometimes you feel like you’re stuck between a rock and another rock. You don’t have room to breathe or move. You desperately need air and space and don’t have the energy to push the rocks apart to get it.

If you’re one of those people stuck in a merger that just can’t  seem to resolve itself, that may be how you’re feeling. If you’re in a job that is a bad match and you have no concept of what would be better, that’s the feeling. If your company just went belly up and nobody told you until you read it in the paper, that’s the feeling.

There are many business writers who address the problem, the emotion, and the strategy for moving the rock out of the way. Spencer Johnson’s book, Who Moved My Cheese?, has been a run away business bestseller. His book, 94 pages of big print and bigger pictures, illustrates , in disarmingly simple terms, the complex notion of  what happens when what we are accustomed to getting is suddenly taken away.

William Bridges, an executive development consultant and lecturer has written several books on the subject of personal and professional transition (among them, Managing Transitions, Surviving Corporate Transition, Creating You and Co.). He addresses change issues from the perspective of those who don’t see them coming, as well as those who do. Like Johnson, his approach his straightforward and understandable, although his syntax is a bit more complex.  The print is smaller and any artistic renderings come from your own imagination. He’s a good read if you want to do something while you’re stuck and want to understand why you are.

Harvard Business School Professor of Leadership, John Kotter, is the author of another business bestseller, Leading Change. His approach is a “how to” for leading successfully during times of  turbulence and change.

Stan Gryskiewicz, author of Positive Turbulence and a senior fellow at the Center for Creative Leadership in Greensboro, “offers a process for turning change into a productive force that, properly managed can lead to innovation and ongoing renewal.”

The most prolific author on the subject of change and perspective shift  was probably Dr. Seuss, (Horton Hears a Who; If I Ran the Circus, On Beyond Zebra, Oh, The Places You’ll Go) who wrote 44 best selling books for children and their parents.

We are, at once, fascinated by change. We love it when we’re creating it and fear it when we’re not. It’s the best of our dreams and the worst of our nightmares.

If you’re stuck now, and feeling immobilized, what must you do to get free?

1. Figure out what’s stuck: you or the rock.
2. Realize that you can’t control what is happening to you but you can control your reaction to it.
3. Become proactive in your thinking instead of reactive in your behaviors.
4. Open yourself to new ways of thinking.
5. Become solution seeking instead problem stopping.

In order to push beyond where you currently are, you’ll have to care enough to expend the effort. What’s your plan? Where are you going and what’s the role you’re going to play when you get there?

The rock can’t move. You can.

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Yes! You may use this article by Executive and Career Coach, Joyce Richman, in your blog, article in your blog, newsletter or website as long as you include the following bio box:

Joyce Richman (www.richmanresources.com) has been specializing in executive and career coaching since she started her own practice in 1982. She works in a variety of environments including: higher education, manufacturing, sales, marketing, media, technology, pharmaceuticals, medicine, banking and finance, service, IT, and non-profit sectors. A member of the adjunct faculty at the Center for Creative Leadership, Joyce is certified to administer a number of feedback and psychological instruments. Joyce is a weekly guest on WFMY-TV and the career columnist for The Greensboro News & Record. She is the author of Roads, Routes and Ruts: A Guidebook to Career Success and co-author of Getting Your Kid Out of the House and Into a Job. A popular speaker, Richman conducts seminars and workshops throughout the United States, Canada and Europe. Her coaching profile can be found at TheCoachingAssociation.com.