Merriam-Webster relates inspiration to something that makes someone want to do something or that gives someone an idea about what to do or create; a force or an influence that inspires someone. Although Merriam-Webster shows us inspiration in the perception of a thing, it is much more important that it is translated to you as a person.

We all meet people and interact with them on a daily basis. We come into contact with all sorts of folks, but what perceptions do they leave with once they are done with us? Do they leave elated as though they are currently living in the eureka euphoria due to the change and positivity they have experienced, or do they leave totally downcast because all they have encountered from you has torn them apart, shredding them into greater pieces?

The consciousness that our actions and activities ought to be one of positive ripple effects on others ought to ring a bell in our minds on a daily basis if we truly want to inspire others.

Invisible inspiration

As we interact daily with others through face-to-face meetings, but also through the posts and stories that we share on various social sites, these activities could easily turn into invisible inspiration for others. People that we don’t know could be inspired by our actions or by our words. Short posts on LinkedIn could easily be a spark that will ignite something positive in their life, push them in the right direction, or help them to step out of their comfort zone.

We all have lots of people that inspire us, and they don’t know about it. One person who became my invisible inspiration is Michaela Alexis. I connected with her on LinkedIn some time ago to follow her posts and articles, but the main reason was that I like people who are real, share their stories and don’t care about haters. She is also not afraid to publicly admit when she fails in something. For example, she auditioned for TEDx and epically failed (her own words), she shared the video from that audition with everybody. She got stage fright and failed. As a speaker, I know how hard it is sometimes to speak and share the story on a podium with so many eyes staring at you.

That’s why I admire people like her that are willing to share their failures with others publicly and show us, that we can survive almost anything and learn from it and thatfailure is not the end of the world. We celebrate our success because it has cost us so many failures, so many disappointments, but we know that the hardest thing is to rise up again and fight. To try a new way that will work.

And it is very rare to see people like Michaela sharing their failure stories, especially when we are living in era when admitting your failure is sometimes consider as some sign of weakness. People are afraid to share any of their “how I fail stories”. And as you know, we all have tons of these stories, our small and big everyday failures. That’s why she became my invisible inspiration.

‘’Pursue something so important that even if you fail, the world is better off with you having tried.’’ – Tim O’Reilly

Inspire others

Many things we do, especially publicly, inspire others even if we don’t see it or we don’t know these people. Things we do become an invisible inspiration for somebody else. And most people will never reach you and reveal to you that you inspire them, but as Warren Buffett said: “Someone is sitting in the shade today because someone planted a tree a long time ago.” We need to ensure we carry out our activities on a daily basis with this in mind. Every man on earth was not created to live a life of solitude, but our actions and all that we do are supposed to affect (positively), the lives of others in and around our circle.

Sometimes our circle could be small – as Jim Rohn said that we have an average of five people we spend most of our time with. Taking heed to what he says, what good will this do others if we are nothing but a negative influence upon them. However, thanks to the internet and social sites our network is much wider and the number of people we could reach and inspire with our thoughts, post to and stories growing every year.

The majority of folks always find themselves in the valley of various crucial decisions in their lives. Many times, they find themselves in a fix and seem incapacitated. This causes their search for answers from various quarters and they are willing to do almost anything to get those answers to the questions they have raging in their minds.

Many folks just want someone to tell them how amazing they are and how much they believe in them. They need someone to encourage them, speak nice words to them, tell them they can get done what they have deemed impossible or what someone else has made them downcast about.

You could be that external force to them by speaking the right words to them, inspiring them to be all they can be and propelling them to reach for the stars.

Even if you do not realize that sometimes the smaller things you share as posts could have a big impact on others. The people that you have never met in real life and your words could be that inspiration that they are looking for.

We all need an inspiration in our lives, but we all are also an inspiration for others.

For many years, LinkedIn has been one of the major sources of candidates for most recruiters and companies, even though many articles, tips, and books have discussed how to source outside LinkedIn on other social sites like Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.

LinkedIn is still the place where recruiters start their search for candidates – and, in many cases, is the only place. Nevertheless, a few interesting solutions can help recruiters abandon the comfort zone of LinkedIn and find more candidates in other places.

Following are three tools that will help you find candidates who were hidden to you because those candidates don’t have profiles on LinkedIn.

All these apps will help you expand your search outside LinkedIn and give you more interesting information about candidates. Every application has a different focus, but all of them can be interesting solutions if you are looking for a way to replace LinkedIn or expand your search on other sites.

And because sharing is caring, in the comments, please say which tools you are using or which sources you prefer.

Talentwunder

URL: https://talentwunder.com

This is a search engine that will help you search across 51 social networks with 1.6 billion profiles. The 51 social networks include sites like LinkedIn, Xing, Behance, Facebook, Meetup, GitHub, Twitter and more.

The great advantage of Talentwunder is that you have one dashboard for all your searches. You don’t have to use a unique string for every site, and you don’t need an account for every social network.

The “disadvantage” of this application is that you will no longer be able to use the excuse that you don’t have time to look for candidates on Twitter because you still have plenty candidates you need to reach on LinkedIn. Because of that, your search will be more quick and effective.

Talentwunder also lets you see a candidate’s willingness to change his or her job by using predictive analytics and social signals. You can also get information about their willingness to relocate to another city or country. That information can sometimes be very handy.

HiringSolved

URL: https://hiringsolved.com

HiringSolved isn’t just an app that lets you find candidates who have a profile on the internet; it also combines billions of social data points into a global talent database with automated sourcing and candidate matching capabilities. TalentFeed+ enables HiringSolved’s technology to operate with customer ATS, CRM, and HRIS data.

As you know, for every recruitment agency or company, the ATS is still the best way to find suitable candidates. Whether you have thousands or millions of records in the system, HiringSolved will allow recruiters to find these candidates much faster than they did before. Also, this TalentFeed+ connection with your ATS will help you find candidates who were lost in your ATS for a few years.

HiringSolved also has an AI interface called RAI. RAI allows recruiters to operate HiringSolved’s software suite simply by talking to RAI, so RAI will be your private recruiting assistant. As with Talentwunder, HiringSolved will also show you how open the candidate is to changing their job or relocating.

AmazingHiring

URL: https://amazinghiring.com/

The third system is called AmazingHiring. It’s a quite interesting (and amazing) solution that focuses on profiles other than those on which the previous two systems focus.

AmazingHiring searches several websites and social networks (It’s about 60 sources, incl. social media and professional communities), but focuses much more closely on searching for technology candidates, particularly IT. If you are looking for a software developer, data scientist, system architect, UI/UX designer, managers, graphic designer, network administrator and so on, AmazingHiring is for you! Of course, you can also find other profiles, such as those of recruits who focus on technical positions.

IT specialists do not need to update their resumes or keep their LinkedIn profiles updated; even with outdated profiles, they will get lots of offers. That is why many people in that industry don’t spend their precious time on LinkedIn, but prefer to contribute to sites like GitHub and Stack Overflow. AmazingHiring allows you to search millions of profiles on these and other websites all over the world. Each candidate has a profile card in his/her system that is created by linking the candidate’s social profiles to more than 50 Internet sources. Every month, AmazingHiring extends its database to new profiles and adds candidates from other locations. If you’re a recruiter responsible for hiring people for the technical field, AmazingHiring should be one of your sourcing tools.

AmazingHiring has an incredibly intuitive dashboard and can be used by a recruiter who cannot create Boolean strings. The dashboard can also be used as a small ATS for managing candidates, allowing you to see which candidates you have already contacted, which candidates have already responded to you and which candidates are still in the process.

The AmazingHiring team is also behind the First European Hackathon, which was pretty amazing. You should keep eye on them more closely, so you don’t miss the next one or any other cool things from them.

Conclusion

All these systems could replace LinkedIn or be interesting additions to your sourcing tools. Maybe they won’t be complete replacements for LinkedIn at the moment, but they are already great sources of new candidates who aren’t on LinkedIn for a reason, or whose profiles on LinkedIn have minimal information.

Each application I mentioned has its pluses and minuses; it also depends on what candidates you are currently seeking.

All three systems will help you be more effective and find candidates who were hidden to you, especially when you were sourcing only on LinkedIn. If you’re leading a team, thanks to these applications, your colleagues will no longer be able to give you the excuse that they don’t have time to search on networks other than LinkedIn.

These apps are still evolving, and they are offering more things to recruiters, but if you would like to get out of your LinkedIn comfort zone, they’re worth a try.

Remember your first day at work? The optimism you felt, the excitement that you had for your new role. The expectation that you’d grow within it, learn new skills, and enhance your abilities and experience. Every day was a thrill, every challenge was exciting, and sometimes, you weren’t able to fall asleep just because you were working on a project that was so interesting that you lost track of time whenever you worked on it.

Time eventually passed, and a dim routine settled in. Suddenly, you find yourself in a rut that is stunting the joy and purpose that you derive from your career. You realize that you are stuck and your current role is boring. This could happen to you anytime during your career. The excitement and joy of your work could disappear after a few months or years. It’s then that you’d start asking yourself this question: Have I outgrown my job?

If you’re still unsure, here are the nine signs that you may have outgrown your job:

1. You are not advancing career-wise

A great job should provide you with more than just a paycheck. Additional skills, new experiences, and even new contacts can all be valuable assets in your career progression. These were the reasons why you took the new role in the first place. You wanted to learn something new and/or have more responsibility. If your current job no longer offers these, then it may be time to re-evaluate your current working situation.

2. You have reached the ‘growth peak’

Have you hit a “growth peak” in both pay and responsibilities? If so, you may need to put your overall, long-term career into perspective. When your skill set is not being utilized and there is no potential for future promotion, you know that you’ve reached a “peak” in your current job.

3. The job is no longer challenging

Is your role no longer challenging? Are you able to work while half-asleep? Are you too comfortable? Although being comfortable at work is important, getting too comfortable is both a drain professionally and personally. If you’re not exposed to new tasks at work, then you are surely not adding to your skill set as fast as your peers are at other organizations.

Adversity sparks growth, and it is through that pressure that we acquire new skills. If you switch to autopilot and settle for “easy,” this will just leave your abilities, resume, and career underdeveloped.

4. You have a poor work-life balance

Is it difficult for you to take a day off? Have your holidays turned into typical working days, and your boss thinks that working from home from time to time sounds like a joke? Your work-life balance has turned into a work-work balance, and the joy from work was replaced with frustration.

5. The excitement starts to die

A sure warning sign that you have outgrown your job is when the excitement fades, and routine takes over. You, then, become the proverbial clock-watcher. And we all have at least one clock-watcher colleague at work.

Perpetual boredom at work often leads to a decrease in efficiency and accuracy. If allowed to become a pattern, boredom will spell doom for long-term career progression.

Every work seems challenging and interesting in the beginning, but it becomes monotonous over time. Our unconscious starts taking it for granted and we might even end up delivering a lousy performance.

6. You just can’t stand the people

People problems can range from challenges with customers, all the way to issues with coworkers, bosses, and others. Sometimes, a clash of incompatible cultures is no one’s fault and you just find yourself picking arguments with coworkers because your current frustration starts driving you crazy. And when you start to see that your colleagues are getting more recognition or standing out from you in other ways more often than they used to, this can feel discouraging and can further distract you from your job.

7. You are always overworked

Are you performing the work of multiple employees, across multiple skill sets? Any job can experience temporary fluctuations in work volume. But if it’s clear that your employer expects you to consistently do the work of several people permanently – even people above your pay grade – you become physically and mentally drained by the end of each day.

8. Your employer cheaps out with old tech/methods

Is your employer married to old technology or ways, making it difficult to accomplish the tasks and responsibilities expected of you? When you see that your peers in other companies are using modern technologies and new methods, which are helping them learn new things and acquire new skills that you don’t have, you start feeling frustrated. Frustration will always set in when a skilled employee is forced to work with substandard tools and old ways.

9. You have found passion elsewhere

When your work environment no longer satisfies the deepest parts of your personality, it could be an indicator that you have outgrown your job. You joined that company because you loved their company mission, but over the years, you have evolved and the company has, too. This means that the mission may have changed, and your interests may have changed as well.

Conclusion

Of course, you’re not the same person today that you were when you began your current job. People change, and so do their goals and desires. Over time, you were likely exposed to new ideas and professions that you didn’t know about when you made your career plan. That is, if you made a career plan. New technologies are creating new opportunities that could look more interesting than the one you hold right now, and that could happen a few times during your life.

Some people like boring jobs where there are no surprises, but there is also no personal development for them. That job becomes their comfort zone and they are happy there. However, for most people, career and personal growth are important. And even if you love the company and team, sometimes you have just outgrown the job and it is time to move, and that’s all right.

If you begin to feel that you’re more interested in another field, sector, industry, or job than the one you are currently in, that may be the biggest sign of all.

If you don’t like how things are, change it! You’re not a tree. – Jim Rohn 

If you a runner, you know that sometimes during a long run, you “hit a wall.”. You trying to catch your breath, your legs don’t work, and negative thoughts start flooding your mind. You have two options: you can quit, or you can do something. The same goes for our careers. Sometimes we hit a wall, and we are not sure what next steps to take.

No matter what your job is, it is nice to feel that you can progress and that you are growing in some way. Outgrowing your job is only natural in today’s economy, so never be afraid to grow and embrace the change related to it.

It’s nice to feel that your job brings fulfillment other than the paycheck you receive at the end of every week. However, if there is little or no room for growth, then this begs the question, is it time to leave, or can you make it work? It then becomes a matter of whether or not it is time to change jobs or if you should wait and hope for a gradual improvement.

When you realize that you have outgrown your job, there are few things you can do:

1. Fix Your Job

You won’t perform like a star in a job you hate, and if you hate your job, why would you care to outperform? It goes both ways.

It’s important to make a change to refresh your relationship with your work, especially after years and years of doing the same job. Identify aspects of your job that doesn’t feel right, even if they once did, and do something to address those issues. Discuss with your manager what responsibilities you can change or what you can do to give your job duties more variety. If you don’t want to leave the company, you can always try to get a new job in another department.

2. Create New Challenges

When your skills exceed the challenges, you become bored. And when the challenges exceed the skills, you become anxious. Remember, your strengths are developed through your responsibilities. Take complete ownership of your work, and give 100% to the task at hand.

It’s also important to keep your work fresh to continue to love what you do, so change things up from time to time. Even just reorganizing your office could help usher in that shift you are looking for.

3. Learn to Relax

You lack the energy to sustain interest in anything. You easily fall off balance and feel burned out? Accept that you don’t have a source of inexhaustible energy and that you are not made to run at high speed for long hours.

We all need to recharge our energy levels to get more done in less time. Your physical, mental, and emotional energies need to be recharged to let you last longer. Focus on one task at a time, and work in a distraction-free environment. Take a holiday but leave your company phone at home. Working during your vacation will not help you to recharge your batteries; you will end up more exhausted than before.

4. Don’t Stop Learning

Even when the job gets stuck in a rut, never become complacent. Look for industry- and career-related opportunities to learn new skills and develop different aspects of your life.

Set aside time to look at your career over the past year to better prepare yourself against the unforeseen. Are you volunteering your skills, putting in an effort, and making the most of the opportunities at work? Be sure that you aren’t the one sabotaging your growth. Always consider whether there is actually any opportunity available for growth. Talk to experienced staff members who have been there longer for insight. Don’t be negative.

5. Speak with Your Boss

If you feel the company is seriously impeding your growth, talk to your boss. For example, in cases where your employer uses old tech or practices, make a business case for adopting new technologies or practices. Try to explain how the current setup is limiting your abilities and efficiency.

6. Take a Sabbatical

Sometimes, a two-week vacation is not enough to reset your batteries. What about the whole month or two? Taking a one-month sabbatical could find the energy you have been looking for years. You can get new ideas during that time, which will help you at work. When you finish your sabbatical, the old job will look like a new one to you. And sometimes, you can realize during your sabbatical that you would like to do something else.

Conclusion

When all else fails, consider a move. Sometimes, the move is your last resort, but if you tried to make changes and they’re not working, it’s the best thing you can do. Don’t be afraid to make a change. When you don’t see an improvement despite your best efforts and your expression of your dismay to the higher-ups, consider a move.

This move should occur when your current job no longer challenges you or provides meaning if you get no career benefits from working there, or if the people you work with are no longer a good fit, then it could be worth examining other opportunities available to you.

In resigning, a key rule is never to burn bridges. It might look very satisfying in movies to see a resigning protagonist flip the boss off before exiting the office in style, but in real life, burning bridges is never a smart move, no matter how much you hate the job or employer. Always keep your exit clean and professional. You never know in what companies you are going to meet your ex-colleagues.

Keep in mind that people change and grow over time. Moreover, if you have outgrown your job or need more satisfaction from the results you contribute, then a change could be just the thing to keep you stimulated, engaged, and ready to tackle new challenges.

Work is a big part of one’s life, and without meaning, it can be a hollow victory, even if everything else goes well.

How many times did you hear, “You don’t have enough experience.” while looking for your first job?

I heard that statement many times during my search. It was a strange situation. I didn’t have enough experience for them, but I couldn’t get any because many of them would only hire people with experience.

It was a Catch-22.

We all start our careers somewhere, and most of us start without any experience after finishing school and in a junior position. Slowly, we gained more experience from our more senior colleagues, mentors, and from all the mistakes that we made along the way.

We grew into more senior roles.

You can’t become a senior member of an organization if you don’t have any experience. None of us immediately started in a senior role without, first, learning our craft. This is applicable not only to recruiters but to other professions, too. But we often forget about that first year when we struggled trying to find our place.

Don’t forget where you came from

Recently, I saw a number of LinkedIn posts where people shared that junior recruiters don’t have enough experience to interview managers and directors. One post, in particular, stuck in my mind. A manager believed that he should speak only with the senior recruiter and not the junior one, and he shared some details from his last interview.

He showed up for an interview for a new position, but when he found out that the junior recruiter would be the one conducting his interview him, he left. And based on that LinkedIn post, he seemed pretty proud of it. He left because the junior recruiter, in his opinion, did not have enough skills to assess his experience, and that only a senior recruiter could understand that.

My first reaction after I read that post was, “Is he serious?” followed by “Is he really a senior person?” because he’s not acting like one. Well, I can’t lie; my first reaction was something that I can’t post here.

I was curious about what other recruiters thought about this, so I shared his post and asked others if they had faced something like this in their careers.

I was lucky that I never had, but I remembered one situation that happened to one of my colleagues many years ago at a previous job. She was supposed to have an interview with a senior manager, but the manager canceled the interview with her because he was expecting to speak with a senior recruiter.

There are two ways you can be deceived: believe something that is false or disbelieve the truth, because if you do that, you deceive yourself.

What does recruitment have in common with fake news, anyway?

I will explain it later, I promise. But first, let me give you a question to consider. It’s this: Figure out which of these statements below are true?

So, which of these statements are correct? If you answered “none of them,” you’re right because all of them are fakes.

And what do recruitment and fake news have in common? In both cases, it’s wise to double check the facts!

As you can see, stаtiѕtiсѕ, when рrеѕеntеd оn аnу рlаtfоrm, are vеrу роwеrful tools. But when they are intrоduсеd intо thе rеаlm оf candidates, recruiters аnd еmрlоуеrѕ, their effect саn positively and negatively determine dесiѕiоn-mаking.

Simplicity is not something you find or something you do, simplicity is a way of thinking and it takes discipline. Leadership is the ability to influence people; to get them to act together and on time; to provide direction and instill confidence. Great leaders understand that leadership involves taking the collective, their people and team on the same journey as themselves and making it as easy as possible for people to follow. Often, great leaders espouse the principle that they don’t expect anyone to do anything they would not do themselves.

These men and women consult widely, listen carefully, define clearly and act decisively. They know clear thinking and solutions, that can be understood, are contagious amongst their people, and they also know that the opposite is true.

Leaders throughout history generally fallen into one of two categories: those whose goal is to see their people achieve the very best outcomes possible by delivering absolute clarity, transparency and simplicity in what they say and do; and those who seek to obfuscate, confuse and generally keep their people in the dark are those who are often either insecure in their leadership, or who have hidden and perhaps ulterior agendas.

“Great leaders are almost always great simplifiers, who can cut through argument, debate and doubt, to offer a solution everybody can understand.” — Colin Powell

Great leaders

For a successful solution to a problem, there must be clarity and confidence it will work. Great leaders have the ability to articulate solutions; doing so in a way that clearly explains how it will work, and providing assurance that the proposed solution will be successful.

This is the opposite to those who obfuscate and avoid clear answers, resulting in doubt and a lack of confidence. Productive leaders confront the noise and endless analysis that pervades modern times, cutting through minutia, conflict and vested interests to deliver clarity; clarity from carefully sifting the issues, complexities, and spurious views; then highlight the real issues and the right solutions or choices.

Effective leaders wisely and intuitively separate relevant from the irrelevant, and then clearly articulate the facts with such simplicity and dexterity that all who hear the message can understand and have the confidence to proceed.

In such times, there generally are those whose method is to introduce irrelevant and confusing issues to cover up their real objectives and to further their cause. Sometimes the tactic is simply to stall for time or to raise issues that are red herrings that distract the debate from the important subjects of the day.

Typical tactics these leaders use is to advocate multiple issues that are known to be controversial, knowing that their real agenda will fly under the radar. Complexity, accidental hiding of facts and blaming other people are their tools of the trade.

Often this entails launching into endless detail, designed in part to confuse their listeners and convey an impression the said leader is invaluable, who is the only one who understands the issues and can effectively lead the team. A favorite claim used by these leaders is the evil is in detail.

The role of clear thinking and clear speaking by leaders in these times is critical, as those with less than ideal motives seek to have their sway, often for their gain; and the risk of those with ulterior motives holding sway over the debate is enhanced. Many corporate collapses have occurred due to leaders deliberately hiding critical information amongst mountains of detail, carefully designed to hide essential truths. There is a fine line between these practices and pure nondisclosure. Those who invoke great complexity in their activities and communications are frequently those who use such complexity to mask their agendas and goals.

Great leaders understand the wisdom of truthfulness and clarity; of keeping their message simple and easy to understand. The footprints of great leaders, who saw into the future and spanned generations, who have previously traveled our paths will often reveal simply, yet profoundly, the benefits of speaking and acting clearly.

Leadership and Simplicity

Unfortunately, if you are a leader, and life is too complicated, you have a doubly complicated problem. You have not only made your life more complicated by some fear but you have also affected the lives of those who follow you with your fears.

If you are afraid to be out of control, your controlling behavior will complicate the lives of others. Aou are afraid of failing, you will intensify your demands on others to avoid failing. If you are afraid of looking bad, you will make your subordinates work twice as hard so you can look better. Identify your fear and look around for the ways it is being manifested in the behaviors of those who work for you.

If you want to affect an entire culture, try to figure out how to help those you work with, identify and manage their fears.

When your subordinates make presentations for you, ask them how many practice rounds they did to prepare. Ask them why? When did they learn there would be no tolerance for mistakes? How many meetings did they attend to prepare not to make a mistake in front of you? If your calendar is full, look at how many meetings could be affected in other ways. Why did you say “yes?” In what ways are you expecting others to accommodate you and your calendar? How is their fear of disappointing you complicating their calendars? Are you conscious of the ripple effect of your behaviors?

If you really want to end up with simpler processes, find out what others fear and try to eliminate it. Start small. It becomes a way of thinking. After you start seeing the differences in what they create, find the next layer. Eventually what you will notice is that as people let go of their fears, they find simpler ways to achieve things.

The first step is to understand the elements of thought necessary to create more simplicity. The second is to identify the elements of discipline to create simpler, more efficient ways of doing things, individually or collectively.

Pay Attention to Your Thoughts

If you want to understand how you complicate your life and your work, consider how you think about things. Every individual has his or her way of complicating things, and each way is unique. The key to understanding how you complicate things is to understand what you fear. You might add extra steps, you might avoid risks you should take, and you might be incapable of making decisions you need to make.

If you are afraid others won’t follow you as a leader and don’t like you, you will do things that are unnecessary to avoid their disappointment. You will respond in a way that is not authentic in order to construct an impression of you that you think others will approve of.

In any given moment, on any specific project, ask yourself what you are most afraid of and then look at how you are processing that fear into a more complicated moment or a more complicated project.

The Discipline

The World becomes more complex, more complicated and if you are trying to simplify your life and your work, you should become highly conscious of your fears and simply act against them. For example, if you allow your schedule to be overwhelmed, ask what you are afraid of. Are you afraid of disappointing people? Are you afraid to say “no” to people? Why? Practice saying “No.” And just say “No.” The world will not stop, and you will not die.

Keeping things simple is not always easy. Practice trusting yourself more.

Dear Santa,

Last year I sent my letter to you quite late, so I hope this year I made it on time. I must admit that all year I’ve thought about what to wish for and what gift I would like to get from you. And as you already know, it was a real crazy year for me and many good and bad things happened. But before I share my wish with you, I have a few questions. The year ended pretty badly for you, didn’t it? Your major market is the USA and they’ve got a new leader, and as you know, you can’t consider him as the biggest fan of foreigners. And because you are living on the North Pole, which according to Canada Post lies within the Canadian jurisdiction with the postal code H0H 0H0, guess what? You are also a foreigner.

So you’re going to need to find a new way of distributing your gifts and how to enter US soil legally. The legal way will include proper screening and you’ll have to answer many questions about your trip. And it will be tough, because if you are going to mention that the reason for your visit are kids, this could end badly for you. And let’s face it, your elves are not some excellent lawyers.

Your second choice in how to enter US soil includes illegal ways which includes climbing over the wall or going through the smuggler tunnels. And based on what I know about you, you are not one of the millennial generation. You know how to attract them, but in your age and physical condition, climbing over the wall or crawling through tunnels could also end badly, and you don’t want to ruin the holidays for lots of kids in the world, would you? And if you hurt yourself without any insurance, this will be quite an expensive trip.

But don’t worry, we’ve survived worse things before and we are going to survive this too. And if you feel angry, you can turn this anger into a great opportunity in how to get yourself into better shape and make Santa great again! 🙂

Your Job is Tough

As you can see, your job is becoming tougher every year and one day, people start reading articles like “Santa will be replaced by Artificial intelligence (AI)” and in that moment, it will be too late to start looking for a job.

I am not saying that you need to change your job right now, but I think it’s time to start thinking about your plan B. I saw your reviews on Glassdoor and you are still doing pretty good. Recommend to a friend is still at 99%, Approve of CEO is 99%, so it looks like your team still likes you. You also have lots of positive reviews from interviews and from employees. You could possibly work a little bit harder on diversity, because only hiring elves looks pretty old-school, especially when diversity was one of the major topics in 2015 and 2016 in recruitment.

I know that you are trying to do modern things and to be honest your Employer Branding activities are still great! But maybe it’s time to try something new. I don’t know what’s in your contract with Coca-Cola, but are you sure that your red trucks are still working to attract Generation Z? What about red Tesla cars or painting the SpaceX rocket red?

Santa, I think you should also start planning a mobile app. You know your customers (younger generation) are using Snapchat, smart mobile phones, tablets etc. and tell me, when was the last time that you saw a kid writing a letter? And also you don’t have an Instagram account that you can fill with selfies of happy kids. And you will definitely get better selfies than Kim Kardashian! There is so much space for improvement, but your personal branding is still strong so at least you’ve got this part covered.

Before you start reading my list of wishes, I would like to know if you’re open for a new job opportunity? Surely, you must be bored after all these years! (And yes, you should expect this question from a recruiter.) 🙂

You know you are never too old to set another goal or dream a new dream. Plus, you’ve been in the same position for many years without any possibility of further career growth, and I am not sure that you’re learning anything new at all. Plus, with the new guy in power, it going to be hard doing your job.

Maybe you think after that all these years being a Santa, you are not qualified for any other job. Well, don’t worry. Even if you don’t have experience, that “wall builder guy” is a reminder that you should just apply for that job you want even if you don’t have the experience. No matter what your haters and elves are saying!

My List

Last year, I asked you for a few things and some of them were not fulfilled. I am not disappointed and I know that you are busy, but I really wanted that real lightsaber (yes, still big SW fan), but I realize I need to wait for my turn.

So, here are the things I wish for this Christmas:

• I wish that LinkedIn does not “improve” their site for users during the whole year 2017. I know that improving is a good thing, but did you see those improvements that they did during 2016? We still don’t have archive functionality in our Message box and using weird emoticons does not count as an improvement. While the possibility of saving the article that I am planning to read in the future is useful, if I can’t find where it’s stored, it’s pretty much useless. And setting a limit for 30 thousand connections is a big limitation. It’s like you only chose 30 thousand kids to get some gifts and the rest will go without them. LinkedIn is about networking and this shouldn’t be limited. So please, no improvements during 2017!
• I wish people would also start reading books other than fantasy books, because they’re still complaining on LinkedIn about some problems that they are not able to find Unicorns, Purple squirrel or some other animals. And I don’t get it. A unicorn doesn’t exist, and if they do exist, why do they need to know how to program in Java? I read lots of fantasy books, (like Harry Potter) but I have never read about a unicorn who is able to do the things that they are looking for. But maybe I missed something, or not?
• I wish all LinkedIn users would improve their math skills, so the constant math training images, “Solve if you are a genius” that we all see every day on our streams will not be necessary anymore. Thanks to all these pictures, I learned how to count the quadratic function and I didn’t ask for that! My life was fantastic before I learned that, so please help me to stop that before I learn differential geometry and my life changes forever. A few more of these “Solve if you are a genius” and I‘ll be like the guy from the movie, The Beautiful Mind. So Santa, solve it if you are a genius!
• I wish to see more articles about “Companies that are trying to develop AI to replace politicians.” Because most of AI’s (Artificial intelligence) are trying to replace recruiters. I know that AI is developed by developers and most of them are pissed at recruiters, for the spamming and constant calls. But come on, we are trying to offer a new job and not every recruiter is doing a bad job. So how about we try to replace politicians first rather than recruiters, because that will be more useful for everybody. Plus, it will be easier to program AI to act like a politician, as you won’t have to program in functions like honesty, truthfulness, etc.
• I wish LinkedIn would stop working for one week. Candidates will have one week off from the majority of recruiters that only use LinkedIn. And recruiters will need to be more creative in how to find candidates on the Internet. Yes, Santa, this is my malicious plan that I will explain to you during 2017, but as I’m thinking about this, will this get me on the naughty list, or?
• And yes, one more thing. I started Recruitment.Camp and I know that I don’t have enough time for it as I wish I did. So, having more time for this activity or more people helping me with it would be great, because sharing knowledge is great activity. 🙂

A few more things

I ask for a real light saber every year. And as you know, we’re close to colonizing Mars, we have electric cars, so tell me, why don’t we already have lightsabers? If Elon Musk was a lightsaber fan, we’d already have a working prototype by now! Last year and many years before, I asked for one and still nothing so I’m beginning to realize that I am still not acting that good that I deserve it. But come on, I am just a person with flaws so try to be flexible, I am trying! So any exception this year? 🙂

But jokes aside and I will be honest with you, this year I am not going to ask you for the light saber. This year, I lost somebody that was really close to me so my wish will be different. I know that life sometimes has bad moments and you couldn’t have brought that person back to life, so my wish is different. I hope that everybody around me will be as healthy as possible and we all survive next year without any other losses, crises and nothing bad happens. Because I will switch a real lightsaber every single time if I don’t have to lose any more people like my friend. I know that stuff has happened, good and bad. That’s just how life works, and you have to go with it. And if I am asking too much (as always) and you can’t grant my wish, just try to make others safe and happy, because life is a journey, not a competition.

One more thing… I am trying not to publicly share things that I am doing for others, because every time I share it, I feel like I am bragging and it doesn’t feel right. But there is one thing I would like to share, especially because it includes some other people from LinkedIn.

At the end of 2015, somebody posted on Facebook “Likes don’t save lives” and that is absolutely true. Clicking on “likes” is not going to change anything or do anything. You can feel good for a few seconds and think that you are helping, but really doing something is making the difference! You may never know what results come from your actions, but if you do nothing (like hit the like on Facebook etc.) there will be no result and nothing will have happened.

I thought about that note, “Likes don’t save lives” and during that time, I also read a book about Mahatma Gandhi and I really like his quote, “Be the change that you wish to see in the world.” So I decided that during the year 2016 (till the time I send you a new letter), I will turn every single “Like” that I receive under my LinkedIn articles into real money and this extra money I will give to charity. So, if you read any of my articles and you like it and “liked” during that time, you became part of this plan. 🙂

And the reason why I am sharing this, is that I just want to say thank you. Every activity in our life creates a ripple with no logical end that could change the life of others, and you’ve become a part of this ripple!

On the picture below, is one of the things that your “likes” have helped support this year and it’s one of many.

Make it through this stressful time and enjoy the Holiday Season!

Jan

P.S: Santa, I know I will get the socks again, so at least please bring me some running socks this year!

One of the TOP 3 reasons why people leave their jobs is a poor manager. And most other employees are also heavily affected by such managers. So when my boss told me a few years ago that he would like to give me the opportunity to build and lead a team, I knew I didn’t want to be the reason why people left me and my team. During my professional career, I had already seen lots of bad managers and what they did to their team members. I knew that I didn’t want to be like them.

Everyone knows that managing people is not an easy task – it’s far easier to manage complex machines than to manage a bunch of independent-minded humans. Despite this fact, managing your team is as important as managing an entire company, because people make up the company.

The importance of being in sync with the people you manage can never be emphasized enough. When you are effective as a manager, it is easier for you and the people who work for you to achieve the goals you have both set out to achieve. But being a good leader always requires effort and some sacrifice in your life.

On the other hand, being a bad manager is the easiest job and requires hardly any effort at all.

First steps

When my boss gave me an opportunity to lead a team, I started reading lots of books about leadership, how to lead people, how to be a good manager and what to do and what not to do. I also read lots of articles with titles like “Top 5 Qualities That Make A Great Leader” or “What Makes an Effective Leader”, etc. And after this reading, I quickly realized that if I followed all the advice in these books and articles, I would probably end up with a split personality or go insane. I’m not saying these were bad books or articles, but one book would say one thing and the next book deny it. But I took some inspiration from these books/articles. I also took inspiration from my boss and then added tips of my own.

I also need to admit one thing: I really don’t like the word “Manager”. I associate this title with “managing people”, and I believe that people should get space to use their knowledge and not be managed or micromanaged. The role of manager should be connected more with the word “leader” because the manager should be leading the team, and not micromanaging it. And, as everybody knows, every company has lots of managers, but not enough leaders who can lead and inspire teams. Giving trust to the team, a sense of ownership and enough responsibilities to use their knowledge and experience should be the main responsibility of the managers. The second thing shoulbe be helping the team members rise and shine, and being there for them if they screw something up. And they will screw things up at the same rate as you screwed them before.

Learn the easy way, or the hard way

They are not you!

Never compare yourself with your team! When you first get people into your team, don’t expect that they will be doing the same things at the same quality, speed, etc. as you. If you set up these expectations, you will feel unsatisfied with their work, because they can’t do things at the same level as you. Every person is unique and also expecting that your team will spend the same long hours at work as you, just because you do it, is foolish. If you don’t realize this, the mood in the team will change and people will leave you because they’ll feel that nothing they do will be good enough for you.

Leave your ego at home

There will be many situations in which you are not going to be right. And if you trust your team, they will tell you. It happens to me, and at the start, it was tough to admit it (you know, men’s ego), so if I wasn’t right I just swallowed the bitter pill and apologized. I could be a manager who says “My opinions may have changed, but not the fact that I’m right.” But this would not help anybody.

You are not working alone

When you are working alone, you try to do the best job so the praise for the work done goes directly to you. When you have team members, you need to stop worrying about who gets the credit or praise for the work done. Continue working to give your best, share the success and hold the shield if problems occur. It’s your team. Don’t forget that as a leader, you succeed only through the efforts of your team. Just because you’re in charge doesn’t mean you deserve all the credit for the work being done. If your team and individual team members made something great, you as a leader should appreciate it and not take credit for it.

Improve on communicating, not talking

It’s important that you understand that the way you express your thoughts to your subordinates and coworkers makes a difference in how you are viewed and to the attainment of your goals. If for example, you are managing a small team, it pays to smile, maintain eye contact and genuinely listen to the opinions of your team members, irrespective of their education, experience or ideas. Doing this will make people more open and create an environment of mutual respect. Bear in mind this saying: “Bad managers tell what you need to do, good managers ask for help and explain why.” So always ask, don’t tell.

Ensure you keep to your word

Trust is one of the most important things in any team! If you don’t trust your team and your team members, how you can work with them? And if you trust them, you also expect the same from them. No one likes a manager who promises a bonus at the end of the month and then gives a story about how it won’t be possible. They aren’t going to like you either if you make the rules and then bend them when you are almost caught in their web. Trust is one of the most important things between manager and their subordinates. It’s important for people to be able to take your words to the bank. If you say you’re going to come through, be sure to keep your promise.

Sometimes circumstances may keep you from fulfilling a promise, and that is why you should only make a commitment when the probability of achieving it is good. Some circumstances you cannot influence, so if you promise a bonus, promotion, etc. and circumstances change, you need to explain what happened and why you cannot fulfill your promise. If you start to sugarcoat bad news, you’re on the way to the point where your team is going to stop trusting you. Bad things happen and good things happen, but a good leader who trusts his team is honest and can explain even bad news.

Sometimes I compare good leadership with a relationship. If you start hiding things and start telling small lies, or you stop sharing anything, you create small ripples in trust and it will end in a breakup. There is saying: “Good communication is key to a successful partnership” – and the same goes in a team. The team will understand if there are some things you can’t share because they are confidential. They will trust your judgment, and they will trust you in the end.

“Don’t talk, just act. Don’t say, just show. Don’t promise, just prove.”

Have a positive outlook

There are lots of angry bosses out there who yell and frown at the slightest thing. It is the belief of many leaders that being rough and tough will make people do their work more efficiently, but this isn’t true. If you’re still using that sugar-and-whip method, don’t waste your time on asking why your team members are leaving you.

You will be a better leader when you have a positive demeanor and a positive outlook on things that affect the organization. Your team is helping you to rise and shine because you are helping them do the same thing. If your team is doing a great job, others will think that it is because of you. If your team is not doing the best job, it’s also your responsibility.

It’s important to compliment your staff when they do the right thing. Appreciate someone who has done something worthy of commendation, and see how this spurs other staff to do good work. Maintaining a positive vibe on your team can help your team members rally around you and your vision since they trust that you believe in them and their ability to achieve the team goals.

Empower your staff to make decisions

In a small business, it is very easy to be the only one who calls the shots. This may give you the impression of having a grip over things, but in fact, it makes your subordinates feel less-empowered, like sitting ducks. In bigger companies, the point of being a leader is to train others to be good at their jobs to the extent that even if you are in a coma for a year, the organization will still be able to function effectively. How can you do this? Allow them to make decisions and act as an overseer. Even if they make a wrong decision or handle a situation in a way you don’t agree with, you shouldn’t chastise them (at least, not in public). You should instead use it as an opportunity to train them. Allow them to state the reasons for their actions before dissecting it. Doing this might help you see that there is a logical basis for their decisions. I believe that if I hired somebody to my team and that person failed, 50% of his/her failure is my fault because I could have done something better to help that person to be more successful.

Always be present

As a leader, you want to be present and available to help out in the achievement of goals. The worst thing you can do is to set up goals, then hide in your office. Or, if you have remote teams, to set the goals and not be reachable.

Being present and reachable is part of being a good leader. If you are not there for your team, if you don’t listen and be there when your team needs you, they will find another team leader somewhere else. Again, it’s the same as in a relationship. If you are not investing your time in it and being present during discussions with your significant other, somebody else will be.

They will leave you one day

When you hire new people into your team, you should also consider how long the person is going to stay with you and consider the possibility that they will leave you one day.

They may stay for years, but one day they will look for some new opportunity or new challenge that you or the company won’t be able to offer. The can have many reasons for wanting to leave.

And I know that I don’t want to be a reason. That’s why I have a secret agenda. (Well, it won’t be secret from now on.) 🙂 There are two things I always try to do, and I am not saying that they are right things. First, I try to be a leader and not a manager. I personally don’t like to micromanage, so I try to “spoil” my team members on that level so if they leave me one day, it will be because of some better opportunity and not because of a better manager. The second part of my agenda is that if they leave me, I want to be sure that what they learned from me will help them be successful in their new role.

One simple leadership rule

As the title of this article suggests, I need to mention “one leadership rule”. My friends sometimes ask me what I think makes a person a good manager and how to be a good manager. I always say this, which is also my leadership rule: “Don’t be a manager, be a leader and never act like an asshole.”

Conclusion

There are lots of things I still need to learn, and there have been and will be lots of times when I will fail. But when you have a team, it works like a relationship: if you’re not communicating with your partner, everything goes south. If you’re not taking care of your team, they will leave. They can still leave you for a higher salary or better opportunity, but if you’re taking care of them, they won’t leave you for a better manager.

You will discover that there are several ways to be a good manager/leader. You will experiment and test different strategies and see that different strokes work for different folks. Managing other people is a great way to manage and develop yourself, as you will find that leading others will help you improve many of your own interpersonal skills.

Note: In this article, I mention a few examples from my career. I did this not to show that I am doing something better or worse than others; it’s because I prefer to share things from real life rather than using generic phrases like “Most managers do ..” or “Only good leaders do…” , “Bad leaders do xyz …” etc. I’m also not saying I’m leader who does everything right because this can be assessed only by the people I lead. So, if you’re planning to comment on this article, bear in mind that I have a few years’ experience as a leader and have many years ahead of me to learn and improve. I’m sure there are many things I’m still not doing correctly – but I’m trying to find my way.

Robots are on route to replace five million jobs by 2020; Robots will replace 50% of human jobs in the next 20 years… Many of these articles are appearing every single day. And in my opinion, many of these articles are just here to scare us, get more readers on the site, and sell more advertisements. Before robots, they scared us with immigrants stealing our jobs, and after robots, I suspect that will scare us with aliens stealing our jobs.

Many professions have already gone extinct, but the people who worked at these professions found new careers in some other field. So is our future as dark as these articles are telling us or will we find another way as we always have before?

History

Can you believe that before the days when alarm clocks were affordable or even reliable there were people called “knocker-uppers” or “human alarm clocks”? They went about early in the morning to wake the people who hired them to do so. They would scream at the top of their lungs, throw pebbles at windows, or use long poles to knock on the windows of their clients’ houses just to be sure that their customers would get to work on time. You probably never heard about this profession until today.

Antoine Redier was the first to patent an adjustable mechanical alarm clock in 1847. All of these new ideas and inventions changed the world and have flushed such jobs like “knocker-uppers” out. As the world continues to progress we will see even more instances like this occur.

The future is in us and not in what we do; we humans are the ones that made the jobs we do now, and as the human race develops the society changes and our needs and jobs change as well. We are here because our need for improvements dragged us from caves into buildings. Our fascination with flight took us from kite flying in China (5th century BC by Mo Di and Gongshu Ban) to the Wright brothers, who went on the first sustained and powered, heavier-than-air manned flight. And today we have ambitious plans to conquer Mars and other planets.

It makes us humans feel safe when we have a job that we have grown into, one that covers most of our needs. We are in our comfort zone. We have no reason to keep hoping for or working towards better opportunities because we don’t want to rock the boat or take any risks. This is no longer the case. Jobs are dying as new technology is born, and if your job is on the endangered list, I advise you to make some helpful plans to adjust.

“There are more sectors losing jobs than creating jobs. And the general-purpose aspect of software technology means that even the industries and jobs that it creates are not forever.” – Lawrence Summers

Technological unemployment is when people lose their jobs because of labor-saving technological advancements. Looking at it from another perspective again, we are the ones who have hopes and dreams and things we desire to achieve. It is in man’s best interest not to rely on a passing idea and to work on bettering himself. However, if we remain on the side of being reliant on jobs that won’t last or sustain us, it will be disappointing when the worst occurs. I wonder what the people who worked at the telecommunications switch boards, the artisan weavers, or the elevator operators did when their jobs became obsolete. We can only speak for those who have been constantly working on developing themselves. Some would have been ready for greater opportunities, but the others who didn’t expect such bad luck likely had to start all over again.

Future

Jobs are disappearing at the speed of light, and futurists (those who postulate about the future) have predicted that close to two billion jobs will be obsolete by the year 2030. Considering that that makes up about 50% of all the jobs available to us. That’s a pretty scary number, right?

If we pay close attention to past technological revolutions, we can see that though new inventions make life easier for us all, they also take away some of our sources of livelihood. The best way to prevent yourself from falling into such a looming trap is to prepare.

As employees we should be flexible and learn new things because new inventions are constantly opening up new jobs. There is a great benefit to staying ahead of the tides of change; it will do us a lot of good if we develop ourselves as we wait for the jobs that currently do not exist. This quote by Louisa May Alcott says a lot about how we need to go about things. “I am not afraid of storms, for I am learning how to sail my ship.”

The Merriam-Webster dictionary defines “flexibility” as the willingness to change or try new things. The only thing that is referred to as constant is change, because it is bound to happen. Things are not the way they were and won’t remain as they are, and the earlier we accept this and prepare the better off we will be. We all should decide not to remain in a comfortable mold and instead break our minds out of that box. Employees should continue to better themselves by learning every day. The new economy of the world will carry along those who are willing to take education seriously.

How do you prepare for jobs that do not yet exist?

First, you have to know that there are jobs that will be extinct soon. These are jobs you should not go to school for and that you should not sit securely with. Some jobs will soon become 100% automated.

Secondly, by learning something new, knowledge empowers and expands the mind, which helps us become better at making decisions. Learning new things helps us meet like-minded people and create new opportunities.

Thirdly, cats won’t be dying of curiosity in the future, so as an employee, a good skill to practice is curiosity. Being curious is different from being obnoxious. This has to do with a deep-seated passion for learning and to know more. It is hard for something new to escape the curious-minded person. He or she will ask questions when confused and seek answers. The Internet is a huge shelf of information about everything, and it is available to all.

Managers also need to add a new role to their portfolio; these people need to become leaders. The authority and influence that managers have over their subordinates should be used to guide, direct, and groom them in preparation for tomorrow.

Everyone keeps working in a system that has no future. When new technology arrives, new jobs become available, but who will take them up when no one is working so as not to be left out when the revolution hits?

Managers should become motivators and leaders, the new generation of workers should know that things change, and employees should be prepared and willing to go through developmental change. They should also work on attributes that will help guarantee the future, which include:

1. Ambition: When a person is ambitious, he already has something that can take him past the horizon into the future. Ambition changes the way we see things. A character that will sell a person to an employer is a palpable ambition. Organizations will hire one who has the hunger to achieve and not a bench warmer, because to have ambition is to have a strong will to excel.

2. Skills: Skill is having what it takes mentally, physically, and socially to procure employment processes that might have formerly been referred to as basic or soft skills. These include the ability to reason fast and offer useful and clear solutions, multitask, and maintain good interpersonal relationships.

3. Know-how: Leaders have to make it known to followers that it is what you have that you can give. To be employable you must have the technical ability that qualifies you. Having the know-how and displaying the values that make solutions come easy is useful in any field as it ensures that you are able to make your presence felt positively in the workplace. This can be developed through the desire to be better and taking constant action. Reading, being able to unlearn and relearn, making every effort count, all of these go beyond the teaching of the classroom. All it takes is a personal decision.

4. Worth: After gathering all the good stuff it helps to have a good sense of self-worth, not in the way that blows you up and makes you come across as cocky but a confidence that helps you present yourself in a good light. When working on yourself to prepare for the future, it should help you to know that those good traits you have been able to imbue are unique to you. This will help you break away from the fears of feeling inadequate, and it will help you trust yourself more.

Should we be scared about the future?

History tells us that technology creates more opportunities and jobs, and the same thing goes for any future jobs. Our work is changing in many ways. Take my profession, for example. A few years ago, we were on phones and print advertisements, and our database was excel spreadsheets. Now we have smart ATS, and we have many other interesting technologies at our disposal. And yes, even in my profession there is a constant fear that we will be replaced by Artificial intelligence (I hope with some really smart one). 🙂 If this happens, our jobs will evolve and we will evolve too. People who are constantly learning new things and investing into their education will be in a better position when this change happens.

Being able to accommodate the new will come in handy. As the world progresses, it will bring with it new technologies and ideas. Constant learning is the key to being prepared for any changes that the future may bring.

The future is always full of surprises, and those who are ready to live and thrive in it must prepare to be unsurprised.