Beverly Flaxington: Seven Steps to Hiring and Retaining the Right Person
An organization will only function like a well oiled machine when we have the right people for the right jobs. Sounds logical but the stats don’t lie. According to the Dept of Labor, 50 percent of all employees leave their job within the first six months of being hired. 
And in a recent survey by Right Management 86 percent of employees polled said they plan to actively look for a new position in 2013 (http://www.right.com/news-and-events/press-releases/2012-press-releases/item24318.aspx).
To say that the correct candidate selection process for a specific role is crucial is an understatement. So why does the recruitment process go so wrong sometimes.
Beverly Flaxington a Certified Professional Behavioral Analyst (CPBA), hypnotherapist, and career and business adviser explains in her latest best seller Make Your SHIFT: The Five Most Powerful Moves You Can Make to Get Where YOU Want to Go how to get it right so that it doesn’t end in tears but instead increases the bottom line.
Beverly Flaxington Interview Part1 5Feb2013
Beverly Flaxington Interview Part2 5Feb2013
In this short excerpt Beverly shares a tip on how to deal with a difficult boss!
Find Beverly at http://www.
Making Decisions: Seize the Day
I was again struck by how our internal dialogue can keep us stuck in what it perceives to be certainty and security.
What has given me so much personal satisfaction in coaching my clients as they transition from their old job to a new career is watching their true selves re emerge after being suppressed for so long.
I see the light in their eyes,
I notice the change in their general demeanor.
Yes, they stand taller and prouder and walk with their heads held higher.
Were they apprehensive when they made that first decision to get out of the “holding pattern”? Yes, they were but they made a commitment and promise to themselves and did not accept second best.
They just knew there was much more for themselves and chased down their dreams.
Just in case you are procrastinating, vacillating and thinking of all those “cons” instead of focusing on the “pros”, I’d like to share with you the late Steve Job’s thoughts.
“Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life.
Don’t be trapped by dogma – which is living with the results of other people’s thinking.
Don’t let the noise of other’s opinions drown out your own inner voice.
And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition.
They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.”
Steve Jobs
1955-2011, Co-Founder of Apple Computer
Expert Advice From Female Entrepreneurs Part 2
Following on from Part 1 where I posted excerpts from a webinar hosted by Amanda Gome, founder and publisher of the business E-newsletter Smart Company (www.smartcompany.com.au) called “Women on Top-How to Get There”.
In this installment, we examine how your skills can make or break the deal
Here are the 3 tips on the subject of Skills:
TIP 4:
USE YOUR SKILLS TO CLOSE THE DEAL
I think you have to have that bit of ruthless streak in you. You have to train yourself to do that ‘take someone by the throat’ kind of move in a nice way. But I think women are quite good at it. I think women are often seen as having these great powers of empathy and introspection and I think that they can use those in dealing with people.
If you’re in a meeting where you want someone to do something or you want to close the deal, you use those tools to close the deal, to read body language and understand where that person is coming from and use it. Diana Gribble
TIP 5:
DEVELOP YOUR OWN SKILLS
Treat yourself as if you’re a product of a business. If you are responsible for a brand in a business, you would sit down and say what’s my business plan for the brand?
So it’s doing the same thing with yourself. I want to achieve this position, so I need to have financial skills, I need line management, I need strategic thinking. Then you ask how am I going to collect those along the way? What are the different types of roles?
And actually talking about it and planning it with your respective family and with your respective employees.
If you want to be promoted and want to have a long-term view, really think about yourself and how you’re going to develop yourself and then go out and negotiate and get people to share that vision with you and agree to take you on that journey. Gillian Franklin
TIP 6:
IF YOU DON’T HAVE THE SKILLS, DON’T PRETEND
People shouldn’t try and pretend that they have skills that they haven’t because you will be caught out. I think what you should do is say this is what I love doing, this is what I think I’m good at. If I’m not good at it, I would like to be. I’ll go out and figure out how to get those skills.
This brings in the whole role of mentors that I think women do particularly badly. So you need to go and talk to people who have been there, done that and say give me advice. Ask them how they did it. Gillian Franklin
My 2 cents worth:
Regarding Tip 5 where Gillian Franklin poses the question of branding with respect to you the person, I am with her 100% of the way.
As a female executive, do you actively and consciously project your brand.
So my question to you is, What do you stand for?
Do you make yourself known as the person who wants the job every other person is vying for, and what have you done to distinguish yourself from the rest of the herd?
The reality is that even if you have done a terrific job to date, you still need some shameless self promotion to get your message heard and your brand noticed by the powers that be.
Ask yourself if you are up for it.
If not, email me and I can suggest some techniques that will get you over your self -consciousness.
Until next time, keep your eye on the prize.
Women Executives: Leadership Role Models (Part 4)
So, you have arrived at a position within your organisation that has some degree of autonomy and responsibility. In fact, you now lead a team of individuals, with unique talents.
Your boss has handed you a brief that requires your team to deliver on an important project on time and on budget. You know that it is the make or break opportunity and you really want to prove that you have what it takes.
This is your springboard to making it at the executive management level, your holy grail.
However, you also notice that you are going boldly to where no other woman has been, in fact your company is devoid of women executives. So, nada and zip in terms of finding a role model or a mentor in a skirt and killer heels. Bummer!
You are a modern woman (read resourceful, and confident), and you take it upon yourself to hire a career or executive coach to fast track your ambitions.
Any coach worth their salt will start with working out what makes you tick.
I am fond of quoting this line from Sun Tzu, “If you know neither the enemy nor yourself, you will succumb in every battle”–Art of War
In other words, if you want to achieve (and earn) more, you have to become more.
You cannot expect to operate on a higher level without first making the necessary changes in the way you think, behave and conduct yourself. If you are expecting circumstances to adapt to suit you (as you are now), you are going to be waiting a very long time to become successful.
Have you given some serious though about what it means to be a well respected and effective leader?
In your present role where you work for your immediate boss, ask yourself what is it that you admire about him/her. Conversely what do not like very much about the way they run their unit or department especially in their daily interaction with their team.
List what you consider as the traits of your ideal leader, a person that you’d happily become. What are the interpersonal skills that you would like that person to possess?
Remember, to be an effective leader means getting your team to carry out a piece of work to a standard and level above what they would normally deliver. More importantly, it is getting them to do this willingly without cajoling or the threat of unemployment!
Bottom line: It means being influential and having your people opt in to your vision and goals.
I shall leave you to ponder this for the time being.
Yours in health, wealth and happiness