Organizational Challenges and the Role of Leadership

Introduction The global economic recession, which began in 2007, emphasized the importance of leadership in modern organizations. Such scholar as Warren Bennis argues that these challenges can force educators and managers to reconsider their understanding of leadership if they want to better respond to various challenges (2007, p. 1).Advertising We will write a custom essay sample on Organizational Challenges and the Role of Leadership specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More These individuals will have to change their attitude toward communication, decision-making, and structure of their organizations. There are numerous definitions of this concept; overall, it can be understood as the ability to influence and inspire other people and make them committed to ones ideas and strategies (Northouse 2009, p. 5). Many researchers such as Penny Tamkin and Stephen Overell believe that post-recession leaders will have to meet much higher standards in order to sustain their companies during this recession (2009, p. 1). Furthermore, special attention should be paid to negotiation strategies since they are an integral element of leadership and have to reflect the interest of an entire organization. This paper is aimed at analyzing the impacts of economic recession on leadership theory and practice. In particular, it is necessary to single out those aspects of leadership and negotiations practices which become important during this crisis. Economic crisis and its impact on leadership Overall, the ongoing economic recession prompted many people to reconsider modern definition of leadership and leaders. Many corporate executives as well as educators understood this term as the exercise of power and authority within hierarchical structure of the organization (Tamkin Overell 2009, p. 8). Yet, this strictly functional interpretation of this concept overlooks the responsibilities of leaders and their roles. The fallacy of this defini tion has been eloquently illustrated by numerous corporate scandals which broke out during the recession. It has become apparent that many corporate executives failed to take into account the interest of different stakeholders, especially investors, customers, and employees. This crisis showed that some foundational principles of should be reevaluated. This is one of the reasons why a group of scholars under the guidance of Craig Perrin suggested a new model for evaluating the work of leaders. Their framework singles out several aspects or â€Å"zones† of leadership, namely 1) people; 2) society; 3) business; 4) reflection, and 5) ingenuity (Perrin et al, n.d. p.6).Advertising Looking for essay on business economics? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More There are several peculiarities of this model. First of all, it expands the range of a leader’s responsibility. This person has to be accountable to shareholders, emp loyees, and community. This responsibility and accountability were often overlooked by corporate executives before the recession. The second principle is that he/she should be aware about the incompleteness of his/her knowledge (Perrin et al, n.d. p.8). Although this recommendation may appear to be self-evident, it is particularly relevant in the light of economic crisis which was largely caused by irresponsible managerial policies and complete confidences in ones knowledge and decision-making skills. Additionally, this zonal approach to leadership attaches great importance to ingenuity and innovation. According to Perrin et al, the efforts of corporate executives were focused on the preservation of status quo and gaining short-term profits. As a result, their organizations were unable to respond to challenges such as economic recession. It is worth mentioning that many managers attempted to predict and measure specific risks to which their organizations were exposed. This is why th ese organizations were unable to respond to various economic, social, and technological changes. Thus, the ability of leaders to adapt quickly to changing environment becomes crucial during the time of turmoil. In addition, many practitioners and scholars indicate that a leader should be able to see opportunities for the organization and explore them (Tamkin Overell 2009, p. 18). In other words, this person should have a vision of how the company can grow in the long term (Ihlenfeldt 2011). Unfortunately, this aspect has often been neglected executives. To some degree, the ideas of these scholars are supported by corporate leaders whose companies survived the recession. For instance, one can mention Herbert Henkel who restructured the company Ingersoll Rand, developed contingency plans, and reduced inventory long before the recession (Carey, Patsalos-Fox, Useem 2009, p. 2). His ideas were highly unpopular, and many people believed that he had been almost incompetent. Yet, his poli cies helped the company sustain itself during the crisis. His example indicates that a leader should have the courage to do the unpopular thing. Moreover, he should be able to see the challenges which an organization can face.Advertising We will write a custom essay sample on Organizational Challenges and the Role of Leadership specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More The crisis has shown that autocratic management is not the most effective way of leadership because it essentially slows down the exchange of information and decision-making within the company. A good leader is a person who can empower other people (Tamkin Overell 2009, p. 18). To better illustrate this point, we can mention Eric Foss who is the CEO of Pepsi Bottling Group. This corporate leader emphasized the importance of involving board into decision-making (Carey, Patsalos-Fox, Useem 2009, p.5). This cooperation enabled the company to see the magnitude of oncoming rec ession and work out contingency plans. Responsibility and integrity can also be viewed as an attributes of leadership. They can be the key to the survival of a company. In this case, one can mention Terry Lundgren, the CEO of a retailing company Macy. Inc. He warned both investors and employees about future crisis and this helped him gain the trust of these people (Carey, Patsalos-Fox, Useem 2009, p.6). He preferred to say something very unpopular, but in this way he averted panic among investors and workers. Overall, corporate managers described in this paper preferred democratic style of leadership. Similarly, we can mention the companies which failed during recession. One of them is Lehman Brothers. Its executives lacked the qualities typical of leaders, especially integrity and sense of responsibility toward investors and employees. Moreover, they preferred autocratic style of leadership. There are numerous theories and models of leadership, for instance, one can mention trait theory, transformational leadership, role models approach, style theory, and so forth. They describe the character traits of a leader and his/her behavior (Ephross Vassil 2005, p. 53). It is rather difficult to say that the economic recession called a dramatically new approach. Yet, these challenge demonstrated that leadership should be closely tied to such things as social responsibility, ability to innovate and make organization more agile, empowerment of other people, and understanding of ones limitations. These are the main concepts that were highlighted by the recession.Advertising Looking for essay on business economics? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More Negotiations concepts and economic recession Negotiation is one of the most important activities in which leaders participate. Such researchers as Chia-Jung Tsay and Max Bazerman point out that very often corporate executives prove to be extremely egocentric and overconfident (2009, p. 7); as a result, they disregard the interests of other stakeholders. Additionally, these scholars identify another fallacy which leaders should definitely avoid, and it is motivated illusion (Tsay Bazerman 2009, p. 8). The thing is that many senior executives tend to be over-confident in their ability to control events which can hardly be predicted (Tsay Bazerman 2009, p. 8). The recent economic recession highlighted these errors. It demonstrated that many corporate leaders were over-confident and egocentric. Therefore, they endangered their companies. Overall, a person, who takes part in the process of negotiations, must know his/her limitations, especially if we are speaking about knowledge and co ntrol. Otherwise, negotiations will essentially be fruitless. Thus, a leader, who takes part in negotiations, should avoid cognitive biases which prevent him/her from taking irresponsible decisions. On the whole, negotiation is an inseparable component of leadership. Those people, who are responsible for the management of different organizations, can negotiate with their business partners, competitors, colleagues, and so forth (Lewicki Hiam 2006). Additionally, the process of negotiations should certainly reflect the interests of the main stakeholders. Unfortunately, very often it is driven primarily by ambitions of corporate executives, willingness to achieve short-term gains (Silkenat, Aresty Klosek 2009). The leaders should represent the entire organizations. Therefore, they need to think about the effect of negotiations which is dependent on their company. Thus, managers and leaders should focus on intellectual and ethical elements of negotiation since they are equally necessa ry for the success. Again, the significance of ethical and intellectual elements was emphasized by the crisis which was caused by unscrupulous business policies, orientation toward short-term results, and the belief in ones infallibility. These pitfalls have to be overcome by modern leaders. Conclusion Recession is one of those organizational challenges which prompt leaders to display their best qualities in order to sustain their companies. The failure of many executives to cope with their duties calls for a new type of leadership. It is possible to single out several elements of leadership, in particular, vision, social responsibility, empowerment of other people, willingness to improve ones professional qualities. These elements are essential for the sustainability of profit and non-profit organizations. This essay has touched upon negotiations as an important element of leadership. This activity has to reflect the interests of various stakeholders can effect the organization. Th e changes notion of leadership can have significance implication for the training of future business administrators. Moreover, it can affect the policies of different organizations. References Bennis, W. 2007, ‘The Challenges of Leadership in the Modern World’, American Psychologists, vol. 62, no. 1, pp. 2-5. Web. Carey, D., Patsalos-Fox, M. Useem, M. 2009, ‘Leadership lessons for hard times’, McKinsey Quarterly, pp. 1-9. Web. Ephross, P. Vassil, T. 2005, Groups that work: Structure and process, Columbia University Press, NY. Ihlenfeldt, W. 2011, Visionary Leadership: A Proven Pathway to Visionary Change, AuthorHouse, NY. Lewicki, R. Hiam, A 2006, Mastering business negotiation: a working guide to making deals and resolving conflict, John Wiley Sons, NY. Northouse, P. 2009, Leadership: Theory and Practice. SAGE, London. Perrin, C., Blauth, C., Apthorp, E. et al., Developing the 21st-century leader: A multi-level analysis of global trends in leadership c hallenges and practices. Web Silkenat, J., Aresty, J. Klosek, J. 2009, The ABA guide to international business negotiations: A comparison of cross-cultural issues and successful approaches. American Bar Association, NY. Tamkin, P. Overell, S. 2009, After the collapse: Post recession leaders and leadership. Provocation Paper 5, The Good Work Commission. Web. Tsay, C. Bazerman, M. 2009, A decision-making perspective to negotiation: A review of the past and a look into the future. Working Paper, Harvard Business School. Web. This essay on Organizational Challenges and the Role of Leadership was written and submitted by user Cody D. to help you with your own studies. You are free to use it for research and reference purposes in order to write your own paper; however, you must cite it accordingly. You can donate your paper here.

Uncommon Author - An Interview with Eliot Peper

Uncommon Author - An Interview with Eliot Peper Uncommon Author - An Interview with Eliot Peper â€Å"For someone who loves a book, would make their day? What would make them happy or make them think of it again or think that it’s cool? And I’m always struggling with that.†Update! We interview Eliot again for the release of the sequel to Uncommon Stock - come check it out!Eliot Peper is the nicest man in the world. At least, that’s how we felt coming away from our interview. His first novel, ‘Uncommon Stock,’ a startup thriller, is both an indie success story and the debut book from Colorado’s FG Press. Eliot’s background is in venture capital and consulting for the tech industry, including spells running his own startups. We met to talk about what it was like transitioning from entrepreneur to authorpreneur, and what it was like working with the newly-minted FG Press.Edit: As of 2016, FG Press has closed its doors. Eliot Peper is now a full-time indie author.- -REEDSYYour first novel is about startups. You’ve had pl enty of experiences in the business world, but had you written much before?ELIOT PEPERI hadn’t written fiction since high school, but I had experience with storytelling. My background was in startups -  I was a founder, then an early employee at a couple of different startups, and then an entrepreneur-in-residence at a VC fund. As you guys I’m sure know yourselves, the fuzzy front-end of building a business, most of it’s storytelling. You’re trying to pitch investors, you’re trying to bring in talent, you’re trying to tell people about the problem you’re trying to address; you’re always telling stories whether it’s to customers, investors, partners, team members -  that’s a lot of what you do on a day-to-day basis. So I’d been doing a ton of that, but I’d not been doing anything like writing a novel.REEDSYI thought it was interesting how widely your book was picked up by the b usiness community. A lot of business writing is generally non-fiction, right?ELIOT PEPERNon-fiction is interesting for obvious reasons. Most non-fiction is â€Å"Here are the lessons I learned doing something,† or with biographies â€Å"What did this person learn through living their life?† For business, I find fiction particularly interesting because it gives you this secret window inside the character’s head.There’s a boatload of non-fiction out there about business -  â€Å"I built GM, or I was the CEO of X company, so here are the things you should think about when starting a company or in your daily life.† But it doesn’t show you that, as I’m sure you guys are experiencing right now, when you’re building a business it’s a human experience, right? Especially for founders who are struggling through their first company or their first couple of companies. It’s a crazy emotional roller coaster. The hum an side of startups doesn’t get a lot of exposure because everyone wants to talk about advice and best practices. Few people want to talk about how it destroyed their relationship with their wife; or how they were sleeping with their co-founder; or how for their series B round they were about to get a ten-x valuation bump on the first round until lead investor had a heart attack the night before and it fucked up their entire company. That stuff happens all the time. I’ve been shocked by the shit that goes down in Silicon Valley.People don’t talk about that stuff publicly in a non-fiction context -  they don’t want to make that their sort of public life. The beauty of fiction is that you can experience that alongside the character. You can give people a window into what it’s like to be the startup or to be in business. And I think for people interested in learning about entrepreneurship that’s really special because there’s a lot more to it that just lean product development.REEDSYYeah, like you don’t need to have abstracted a principle for a story to be useful to someoneELIOT PEPERI’m sure you guys are experiencing this if you have advisors or mentors that you’re going to for advice. You’ll talk to one guy and he’ll say â€Å"Well, in my last business we did this, and we learned that you have to do X.† Then you talk to someone else and they’ll give you the exact opposite advice based on a totally different anecdote.A lot of business non-fiction is like that -  it’s a lot of anecdotes, and it’s really easy to mythologise people. So you look at the big names like Steve Jobs or whatever, and once they’ve achieved success it always feels like you can retroactively go back and say why they achieved success in the past. That’s a really weird thing to do. From a scientific process perspective that’s really bad, b ut that essentially covers all narrative non-fiction. You have to have that â€Å"What did you learn at the end of the fable?† ending, and I think fiction gives you a lot more freedom in that sense. You’re exploring just how humans wrestle with and overcome obstacles. Those obstacles could be killing Gilgamesh, or it could be taking a company public.REEDSYIt’s like parables, basically, or Aristotle’s version of Ethics. He doesn’t try to say what bravery is, he just says â€Å"Bravery is Achilles.†ELIOT PEPERI think the human mind is wired to understand complex problems through stories. It’s boring to read a complex problem that isn’t part of narrative.REEDSYHow have you applied your startup background to the daily routine of writing? I feel like a lot of startup advice is of the ‘work smarter, not harder’ variety. Can you apply that to writing?ELIOT PEPERI think the process of writing is very grinding, in terms of the actual drafting of the manuscript. I don’t even know how you would go about doing that smarter. I don’t really outline, I just spend time brainstorming constantly. On a walk I’ll think about where the characters are, where things are heading, what the next scene should be, what the final scene should be. I feel like I’m in good shape if I know the next scene I’m gonna write, and some kind of North Star that the climax will be. If I have more than that planned out it usually gets stale or I don’t stick to it anyway. I have to spend time immersed in the world psychologically, then I sit down, start writing, and there’s very little I can do aside from forcing myself to make the time, sit in front of Word, and not go on twitter. A lot of it is knowing how to be diligent and how to have discipline.That corresponds to business. It’s way too prevalent with my friends in tech and the startup world who are like â€Å"Oh my God I wa s up until 4am finishing this last release!† To me that’s like saying â€Å"Oh my God, I’m terrible at managing my time!† You know, that’s basically what you’re saying. It was less that I tried to take the lesson ‘work hard at all costs,’ and instead take the lesson ‘only do what matters.’ That’s really difficult to do.As an author it’s so easy to spend all my time blogging and emailing and pitching journalists or influencers to try and get more coverage for the book, to do events, to do signings, to just be on Twitter and Facebook or whatever promotional tools you’re using. You can let that suck away all your time. But at the end of the day the people who read my books, my actual readers, they just want the next book -  they don’t give a shit what I post on Twitter. To an extent, me having a public face, at least they can feel like they’re getting to know me.But you rea lly have to look back and say â€Å"I need to be spending at least the majority of my time doing what actually matters.† In business it’s just as difficult. It’s very easy to spend your time just being external facing when the only reason people are going to be interested in you is to improve their lives by solving a problem. If you’re not solving that problem in what you’re doing every day, that’s a problem.I think that’s probably the one lesson I took from business. The ‘work smarter, not harder’ side’s more relevant in the PR side of things and how you connect with readers. We’re trying to experiment with that. I have a twitter account for the protagonist of ‘Uncommon Stock.’ We built a real website for the fictional startup in the book. We got Foundry Group, the VC firm, to announce an investment in them on April Fools day. That’s sort of fun. My dearest hope is that if I do something that delights my readers, that when they’re at happy hour tonight and they’re quaffing a beer, they’ll say to their friend â€Å"OK, they actually did this.† If that happens that’s one more word-of-mouth referral. Anything I can do to inspire or delight my readers, that’s what I’m going for.REEDSYIt seems like delighting a reader is much healthier than growth hacking.ELIOT PEPERYeah. If you look at the public discourse about how to get readers, the majority of it is the growth hacking kind of stuff. It’s all about how can you engineer your own success and manipulate people into liking you, and I don’t know -  I don’t really like to be manipulated as a reader, so I don’t really want to do that as a writer.REEDSYDo you have any role-models in the self-publishing space?ELIOT PEPERI like Hugh Howey. He’s the wà ¼nderkind, right? But he’s also really personal and personable. He shares what he does, and it feels real. Or, you know Neal Stephenson? He’s a prototypical Big 5 author; he’s been a best-selling author for decades, he has a huge audience, in that sense he’s very mainstream. But he writes on Slashdot and other random forums all the time. The people writing for the New York Times Book Review would never have heard of these places. He’s interesting because if you go to his website, it’s pretty minimal. It’s sort of lame. But he’s also on Slashdot and all these random place, writing super in-depth, honest answers to forum questions from trolls. I find that compelling because it’s like â€Å"That’s pretty cool, you’re just being real, that’s who you are, you’re a sort of goofy nerdy guy, you read Slashdot so you started writing there too.† It’s been very popular. His forum posts turn into memes that people share around writing blogs -  I think thatâ €™s fun.You don’t even have to stick to publishing. Macklemore self-published his first albums, was never signed by a major label, and was able to build a fan-base because his songs are awesome and he made funny videos for them. Now he’s turned that into having some of the top-listed songs over the past couple of years. That’s pretty cool, that’s pretty fun. With the writers I admire most the biggest thing is they write really good stuff, but the other part is in the rest of their lives they come across as really genuine.REEDSYWhat sort of relationship are you building between yourself and your readers?ELIOT PEPERI try to think of writing as literally storytelling. I don’t just hand over the manuscript and that’s that. I try to think of it like I’m literally sitting at a campfire talking to people. If you’re sitting at a campfire with your friends, you don’t want to be awkward, right? It’s better to tell a sto ry they want to hear. And afterwards you’re still their friend. It’s not like the relationship is over -  you’re going to roast marshmallows over the fire and have a conversation about it. That’s how I look at being a writer. I can connect with my readers in a new way or share something with them they might not otherwise know. Like on my blog I write about business because some of my readers are interested in startups and that’s part of why they read my stuff, but I also share personal stuff because if they like my book they might want to know more about me.Do you know Joss Whedon? I find him really interesting. I’m not very sophisticated about films, but what he’s famous for is that while many of the shows he’s made haven’t been that popular in terms of ratings, the people who did watch it were obsessed with it. He’s had the highest aftermarket sales of anyone. The prototypical guy for this is George Lucas. He turned a weird 70s sci-fi movie into the underlying mythology of America, and represents some enormous amount of toy sales and other crazy external licensing sales.The guys who are now doing all these superhero movies are obsessed with Joss Whedon because they’re trying to do the same with these comic book franchises. So they’re trying to take X-Men and turn it into these multiple blockbuster movies but also have video-games and all these other ways fans can experience the story. Joss says he has one question in mind that I think applies to every authors, and that’s â€Å"What can you do that would really delight your fans?† For people who really like your story, how can you double down and give them extra stuff that they would just want more and more of if they really love that story? There’s a really wonderful essay on this, that’s also relevant for early-stage entrepreneurs, called ‘1000 True Fans’.I’m still figuring that out. If people read Uncommon Stock, what more would they want? I know they’d want the sequel because they’re all asking for it, so that’s good -  I’m working on that. But beyond that what are other things that, for someone who loves a book, would make their day? What would make them happy or make them think of it again or think that it’s cool? And I’m always struggling with that.If I was constantly thinking about how I could sell more books, I wouldn’t enjoy the experience of being a writer much. If I want to look at the world cynically, my experience becomes cynical.REEDSYIt’s a bad filter on the creative process.ELIOTYou’re going to have a filter no matter what. If your filter is ‘how can I create something that people will love,’ that’s a fun filter to have. If your filter is ‘how can I create something that people will buy, not only is that less fun from the creativ e perspective, but it’s also very difficult to ascertain. It’s not obvious what people will buy. If you’re trying to select for that, it doesn’t mean you’re going to have any higher chance of success than someone who’s just trying to create something that people will love, and they’re going to have a much better time doing it.REEDSYYou worked with FG Press on ‘Uncommon Stock’ -  what was that like? Did it free you from the commercial pressures traditionally published authors work with, like having to earn out an advance?ELIOTFirst of all, FG Press gives no advances. You have a 50/50 split on all royalties. A typical big-5 contract gives the author about 15% -  that’s fancy math, but that’s more or less what it breaks down to. FG Press is giving a much larger cut on royalties and they’re giving no advance, and I wanted it that way. I think the advance system sets up the wrong in centive. Then the author is writing a book and selling it to a publisher, rather than selling it to a reader. The people who are important to me are my readers. My publisher is important to the extent that they help me either produce something better or do something that makes my readers more happy. I would self-publish in a heartbeat if FG Press was not providing those things for me.The commercial pressures are tied to advances, but the reason that authors are subject to those pressures is because they want the advance. That’s where things can get messy, and that’s part of what FG Press set out to try to do differently. Does that create different challenges? Of course. If you’re not giving advances, the writer has to support themselves until book sales start coming in -  if they do. That’s not a universally good decision -  you need to choose which risk factors you want to take on to produce the kind of content you want to make. T hat’s what they’re doing, that’s their model, and that’s why it’s different. They’re betting that authors who publish through them willingly want to build a readership and want to earn money based on how popular the damn book is, regardless of whether a high-level editor thinks you have potential.REEDSYWhat is FG Press offering their authors in exchange for the initial 50%?ELIOT PEPERFirst of all they’re writing the checks for the initial production costs. It’s true, they take that financial risk, so that’s great for authors who can’t write the checks to take the risks for editing and production. That’s useful and it shows that they’re committed to the title. It just doesn’t cost that much to produce a book. The part where they really add value is through helping to establish a community of readers. As a -  very personal -  example I was sharing my book with Brad becaus e I thought he would like it, and he’s a well-known guy among people who might also like it. If he likes it and writes a review of it, it could be really useful for helping me connect with new readers.When I wrote the book and we released it, that was super useful. Not only did he post about it but he talked to TechStars. TechStars bought ‘Uncommon Stock’ on a license for all of TechStars -  present and future founders. So every TechStars person now gets sent a digital copy of Uncommon Stock. I’d have never been able to achieve that on my own because I don’t have those relationships and I don’t know those people. But working with FG Press it was really cool to be able to do things like that. Or as another example, Foundry Group issued a fake investment. Would they have done that if I was a random self-published author? Probably not, right? So there have been many opportunities working with them for serendipity in terms of working with them that have definitely benefitted me hugely and that I really appreciate that I think also benefit readers. That was a cute stunt, and I wouldn’t have been able to do that for readers.Honestly, the way that I see it at the end of the day and the way that I think FG press is trying to build themselves and the philosophy they take to the table is that they want to just create a publishing model that makes common sense for authors and book production, and then they want to treat everyone like a friend. I’m doing a panel at a tech event. I called FG Press and said â€Å"Guys, I have this opportunity with this big panel -  wouldn’t it be fun if we could like get excerpts of the book to everyone going?† So we’re creating this co-branded landing page where everyone can go pick them up if they want to. Then FG Press said â€Å"If you’re looking for people for the panel, here are a couple of CEOs in the Foundry portfolio that cou ld be a good fit.† So that’s awesome, it makes the panel even better. And so I get to meet a bunch of CEOs who give me good material for my sequel. It’s an all-around everybody-wins.REEDSYHow important was it working with an editor?ELIOT PEPERFirst of all, I need an editor, and I think anyone who thinks they don’t is crazy. If you want to produce something that’s really fun to read, it needs to be edited by someone who knows what they’re doing.I had a couple of different stages. I shared the drafts with Brad but he wasn’t providing on-going feedback and I didn’t want him to. When I’m working on my first rough draft feedback slows me down, it doesn’t speed me up. I need to basically vomit onto the page, and then take that sack of shit in Word format and try to make it better. My first filtration process to try to make it slightly better was sending it to a couple of beta readers who I’d been really selective with. These were people who I had to trust would both be super honest -  not just say it was nice or whatever. I had to know that they’d give me lot of constructive negative feedback.They also each had a specific perspective they could add. One of them for example was probably the top Angel investor in San Diego, and he also studied Literature at Stanford. And so he has this dual perspective of knowing a lot about the English language and loving books, but also being very involved in tech and early-stage startups. I had a friend from grad school, who ended up being my developmental editor, who used to be an editorial exec in Hollywood. She had the whole movie perspective on how those structured plot elements. Movies are incredibly structured stories, and I don’t know that stuff. Having her perspective to help inform where the story could be improved was really useful. They sent back feedback in different forms. Some sent an email with high-level thoughts, s ome people sent me page references. I thought it through, took it on balance, incorporated it.Then I wanted to do a more in-depth, structural look at it because, as I said, I don’t really outline. That’s how I feel comfortable in the creative process but it means more work at the end because you end up having things that don’t work or don’t make sense or aren’t tight enough in terms of plot and character development. So I did three rounds of developmental editing with my friend from grad school. We made a lot of notes, had a couple of phone conversations, and then I would go through and address the problems I thought were important. We did three of those, and each got more gritty. The first one, she didn’t even make notes. She read it, wrote down thoughts, talked through some of the high-level issues. The next one was more scene-oriented, and the final one was more paragraph-by-paragraph.Once we were done with that, I did one more round of b eta readers, different people, got different feedback, incorporate it†¦ and that’s when Brad was giving a lot of detailed feedback. Finally, once we were satisfied with the content we moved onto language. So I did a round of copyediting, then two rounds of proofreading before formatting it for Kindle and print and all that.REEDSYThanks for your time Eliot.

Nurses work with depressed patients almost daily Research Paper

Nurses work with depressed patients almost daily - Research Paper Example Depression has been broadly classified into the following groups; depression with catatonic and melancholic features, psychotic features, atypical depression, bipolar depression, dysthymia, recurrent and single episode and seasonal affective disorder. When patients present to the department and depression is suspected, a differential diagnosis should be made from neurological disorders, other psychiatric disturbances, endocrine pathologies, substance abuse related pathologies and inflammatory and infectious diseases. Depression is a key psychological condition that often accompanies the majority of all illnesses. A study that was carried out by Katon et al., discovered that depression was one of the most prevalent disorders in primary care with a prevalence of approximately 10% (Katon et al., 2010). However, some patients were found to be more susceptible to depression. These include patients suffering from chronic illnesses as they often lack optimism in the improvement of their hea lth. In addition, they also neglect the treatment regimes that have been prescribed for them by the doctors. Due to these factors, depression has been found to have an adverse effect on the current condition of the patient and his or her prognosis. This disease is also widely under diagnosed in patients and it has also been found to be inadequately treated. Precisely, research found that only 50% of patients suffering from depression in primary care are correctly diagnosed (Thoits, 2013). In addition, from these patients only 40% were properly treated and were able to fully recover within a 6 month period. In summation, patients suffering from depression possess a low mood which often leads to negligence and poor adherence to the prescribed treatment regime. Chronic illnesses are often incurable and therapeutic intervention is mainly to alleviate symptoms and improve the patient’s quality of life. Therefore, patients suffering from chronic diseases often possess the misconcep tion that their condition is incurable therefore, they are already approaching death and treatment is not going to largely benefit them or prolong their lifespan. Environmental factors such as family relationships also play a role in the development of depression in primary care patients. New York is one of the most diversely populated cities and has individuals from different parts of the world. It was determined by the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene that approximately 430Â  000 individuals living in New York suffer from depression (Brown et al., 2013). Similar to the study mentioned above, only 50% of all individuals suffering from depression in New York are correctly diagnosed and three out of five of these individuals are not given the right treatment (Brown et al., 2013). Numerous medical practitioners have recommended that all patients should be screened for depression as this is pertinent illness that has a cure. The New York City Health and Nutrition Examination Survey has discovered that depression in New York has a larger effect on a certain demography. For example, in New York, women were found to have a greater predisposition to depression than men. They were found to be twice as much likely to suffer from the condition. In addition, age was also a determining factor in the rates of depression as the condition was more dominant among the younger population between the ages of 20 and 30 years old. The ratio between

Service management Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words - 1

Service management - Essay Example Marketing promotion is raising awareness of the customer in the organization’s brand or services. It aims at generating brand and maintaining customer’s loyalty. The objective of promotion is informing people on the services rendered, differentiating the services rendered and increasing demand of the services. Promoting company’s brand is important because people will focus on the company too not just the services they render, in case they come up with other services it will be easy to introduce to the market. Promotion can be in a physical environment or through media. Product is the first P and you look if the organization is selling the right product in our case service (Solomon &Marshall & Stuart,  2012). To know the right service, the organization should communicate with the market to know exactly what they need, promotion cannot be enough because no matter how much the service is promoted if it not in need it will not sell. In communities where they live below the poverty line, an organization cannot offer massage services because they will not get those services. Price of services can be unfavorable in the current market, hence there is need to keep communication with the market to know price trend especially of competitors. Sometimes a company may have to lower their prices and if they do not might end up losing customers and at other times they have to raise. Changing terms of sales might be helpful at times, probably add additional item to attract more customers. Revising prices help the organization to remain competitive because it goes with the trend, example when prices are very high as compared to other similar services in other companies people will opt to go for the cheaper one. To know the best place you can sell your services is to send out people to talk to the customers. It is important to reflect on the place the customer and sales persons meet because change in place can raise or lower sales. Example in rural places where there

Applied Macroeconomics Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Applied Macroeconomics - Essay Example iii. The decline in the personal savings rate of Americans will result in the shift of the IS Curve to the right. iv. A drop in business confidence following the collapse of the stock market will shift the IS Curve to the left. 4. A change in which of the following would cause the LM curve to shift To rotate, To both shift and rotate Which of these do not affect the slope or position of the LM curve i. nominal money supply (Ms) affects the position of the LM curve. The increase in the nominal money supply would cause the LM curve to move to the right. ii. the responsiveness of the demand for money to the interest rate influences the slope of the LM curve. The more responsive the demand fore money with regard to the interest rates level is, the less steep the slope of the LM curve will be. iii. the responsiveness of the demand for money to income also influences the slope of the curve. The more responsive the demand fore money to the income level is, the steeper the LM curve will be. iv. business and consumer confidence level changes have influence on the slope of the LM curve and, therefore, would cause the LM curve to rotate. v. interest rate (r) does not affect the position or slope of the LM curve. The change in interest results in change in quantity of real balances demanded and results in movement along the LM curve. vi. price level (P) influences real money demand and, as a result shift the LM curve. If the price level increases, the real demand for money decreases and the LM curve shifts to the left. 5. Explain the concept of "crowding-out". Under what circumstances could government spending be "crowded-out" Do you think this is likely to be the case "Crowding-out" takes place when expansionary fiscal policy leads to the...Increase in government spending, income tax cut or an investment subsidy will raise the interest rate if the quantity of money is unchanged. The IS Curve has negative slope because a higher level of the interest rate (vertical axis) reduces investment spending, thereby reducing aggregate demand and thus the equilibrium level of income (horizontal axis). The steepness of the curve's negative slope depends on how sensitive investment spending is to changes in the interest rate and also on the multiplier. The movement along the IS Curve occurs with the changes in the level of the interest rate and corresponding change in the level of income. If interest rate increases, the equilibrium level of income decreases, and vice versa. ii. the responsiveness of the demand for money to the interest rate influences the slope of the LM curve. The more responsive the demand fore money with regard to the interest rates level is, the less steep the slope of the LM curve will be. "Crowding-out" takes place when expansionary fiscal policy leads to the increase in the interest rates level and, thus, reduces private spending, in particular investment. This way increase in government spending "crowds-out" investment spending. Full "crowding-out" can occur under the condition of a vertical LM schedule when the fisc

The IFAC code of ethics for profession accountants

The IFAC code of ethics for profession accountants Introduction Nowadays, independence is major issues to attain highest level of performances to meet the public interest requirement. (Messier et al, 2006) Therefore, International Federation of Accountants (IFAC) has its mission to provide consistently high quality of service in the public interest by continues establish and strengthen the worldwide economic development and enhancement the accountancy profession with harmonized standards. (ICEAW ¹, 2005)[Online].An IFAC Ethics Committee which also known as The International Ethics Standards Board for Accountants (IESBA) has been established by IFAC Board to develop the issues of the mission and therefore published the Code of Ethics for professional accountants to emphasize the independences and principle-based approach to its professional ethics. (IFAC ¹, 2010)[Online] The Code of Ethics for Professional Accountants (The Code) is guidance for professional accountants identify, evaluate and respond to threats in providing independent audit and assurance service. Independence in assurances services are always being discussed in the Code in terms of a principles-based approach which takes into account threats to independence, accepted safeguards and the public interest.(Rick Hayes et al,2005) It is very important since they implicitly set limit for unethical behaviour and provide guidance in auditing.( Gary Pflugrath,2007) IFAC code always focuses on the issues of independent. Auditing is virtually worthless without independent as it is referred as cornerstone of auditing. An auditors should unbiased, and unaffected by conflict of interest in their viewpoint to provide a true and fair view of the entitys audit report. (Brenda Porter, 2008) It is important to independent to avoid possible threats and access to confidential and sensitive information when carry out their work with professional and due care. Public always rely on the auditors knowledge, skills and expertise in order to form an independent opinion when providing assurance engagement. (ACCA ¹, no date)[Online] Main Report 2.1 The role of IFACs code of ethics is strengthening the independent of external auditors to provide reasonable assurance service. With comply with fundamental principles and the conceptual of framework, the Code can provides information that is more confidential and reliable in public practise while maintaining professional competence and independence. (Graham W.Cosserat, 2009) .These fundamental principles fulfil their obligation for public interest and achieve objective of accounting profession. The conceptual framework of professional conduct and ethics also provided to identify evaluate and respond to threats with compliance with the fundamental principles are not compromised. (ICAEW ¹, 2005)[Online]. The Code also prohibiting members from incompatible activities like allowing commission or brokerage that soliciting clients or encroaching upon other members work. (Emmanouil Dedoulis, 2006) For positive aspect, the code of ethics provides high quality standards and strong professional accounting to serve public interest in a transparent, efficient, and effective manner. Independence plays a vital role for truthfulness and confidentiality financial reporting to investor to serve public interest. (IFAC ², 2004) [Online]. As the public interest continually increase in demand, the revised Code of Ethics has been issued and maintain in principles-based approach to strengthen independent requirement. The revised code is regarding the ethical responsibilities of the auditors who encounter illegal acts and fraud by developing additional guidance. Newer safeguard also has been applied into the revised safeguard to provide guidance for more quality framework from professional accountants. (IFAC ³, 2008)[Online] The revised code is addressing relationships and previous and current interest which related to new entity that may affect independence. Relationship and interest may create significant threats that objectivity could be compromised. (IFACà ¢Ã‚ Ã‚ ´, 2009)[Online] Apart from that, Mr. George has point out that the Code also helps in facilitate the global harmonisations. (IFACà ¢Ã‚ Ã‚ µ, 2010)[Online].Global harmonisation is important because it is to reduce complexity and provides decisive strategic for future global capitals market. It provides greater confidence and sensitive in reliable and transparent information for individual companies. Therefore, it needs high quality accounting framework to develop the truly global set of the standards.(PWC,2007)[Online] Independence helps to provide high quality work which are meeting the information needs for capital market to allow the market operate efficiency, smoothly and effectively. This has improves the ability for investor and stakeholders to global basis to achieves substantial benefits from capitals market and lowers their risk and error of judgement. (ACCA ², 2006) [Online] On the other hand, the revised code of ethics has its negative side. It takes times to adopt the revised Code of ethics as all the professional accountants needs to absorb new information, knowledge, technical and skills in order to strengthen up the requirement of independent. It is also need to incur extra costs to provide training and preparation to adopt the newer information and requirement. Besides that, it needs to have extra communication for clearly understood all the requirement involving in revised Code of Ethics to minimise uncertainty and confusion. (ACCA ², 2006) [Online] The practice of professional accounting may create loopholes activities which may discredit the profession. Independent of profession accountants will hard to resolve this situation because the code is difficult enforcing by legally. (ACCA P1, 2008) [Online] Because the IFAC is not in a legislative position, the Code of Ethics contains no formal sanctions. (Hansrudi Lenz, 2008). Therefore, the auditors can choose to accept and comply with such a code without coercion. In such situation, the Code will fail to comply because they appear out-of-touch on ethics as they are unwilling or too busy to take the responsibility. (ACCA P1, 2008) Other than that, the code of ethics consists moral norm in provides guidance to strengthen up independence. Unfortunately, it has been fundamentally questioned about the moral base of the profession. It is neither a pure-lip-service nor a strict self-binding agreement in the sense of the Code of ethics. The independence may fail to maintain via the Code as there are self-binding that create opportunity to transgress a moral norm since independence of mind are difficult to observe. (Hansrudi Lenz, 2008)There is empirical evidence that shows moral norm are useless if the human natural are neither truly altruistic nor truly egoistic of the human behaviour. A selfish person will leave no rooms for moral obligations and maximise self-interest in decisions making which creates the ethical conflict of interest. (Sara Ann Reiter, 2000) 2.2 The IFAC code of ethics for profession accountants is essentially to maintain the principles-based approach in applying the fundamental ethics principles and conceptual framework. The IESBA have highlighted the principles-based approach as vital roles in auditing which gives guidance to resolving conflicts of interest. (ACCA P7, 2007). IFAC are more preferable to principles-based approach rather than rules-based approach as rules-based approach professional conduct and ethics cannot provide for all circumstances. There may result in inappropriate or inadequate safeguards for fundamental principles of ethics when the rules-based approach lead to unquestioning compliance to rules. (Philomena Leung, 2009) In positive aspect, the IFAC code with accordance with principles-based approach provides numerous set of specific rules for each ethical situation that had been identified. There are varied in the nature of engagement and work environment to professional accountants. (Messier, 2006)Therefore, the code with principles-based approach provides suitable guidance for every possible identified situation that involves ethical consideration with compliance with the fundamental principles that are not compromised. It is therefore the principles-based approach is acts as a driver to provide high quality work of audit. (IFACà ¢Ã‚ Ã‚ ¶, 2004) [Online] According to IFAC, external auditors independences are more preferable to principles-based approach because it creates the robust structures and applied to varied and diverse circumstances faced by professional accountants as it is continues to applicable in the rapid change of environment. (IFACà ¢Ã‚ Ã‚ µ, 2010) [Online] As it is applicable to global environment, it helps professional accountants to avoid technical evasion of detailed rules. The Code is more robust and capable of more consistent application as the IFAC code clarifies the absolute restrictions or prohibition. (IFACà ¢Ã‚ Ã‚ ·, 2009) [Online] The principles-based of the Code are potentially very flexible because it provides flexible framework for multi-culture, multi-lingual, and multi-jurisdictional environment. (IFACà ¢Ã‚ Ã‚ ¶, 2004) [Online] This approach also provides best suited to the rapid change in business environment which allows multitude circumstances that may arise in practise. As such, the standards of the Code can be responsive to the changing needs of the public interest and serves better for the requirement and interests for both user and financial markets. (Intosai, no date) [Online] Conversely, principles-based approach in the Code of ethics may have potential drawbacks. Although the Code provides basic principles to guidance, it is however that a lack of precise guidelines may create inconsistencies. (IVSC, 2007) [Online] As there are many similar circumstances to follows, the illustrative examples can be mistakenly interpreted.(ACCA P1,2008) The professional accountants may covey the false impression in descriptions of situation where it may be misguide the work in practise. Hence, they may not establish any basic principles or essential procedures to be followed in audit review, other assurance and related services engagement. (IFACà ¢Ã‚ Ã‚ ¸, 2009) [Online] The Code with principles-based approach does not and cannot capture all ethical circumstances and dilemma unless the professional accountants have very good and clear understanding in the underlying principles. (ACCA P1, 2008) Ethical dilemma can be inevitably occurring when the code cannot be honoured without apparent breach of another. (FIG, 2007) [Online] As there are argue in the regional variations in cultural, social and ethical norms, the IFAC code cannot capture important differences in emphasis in some part of the world. In additional, the Code of ethics is not technically enforceable in any legal manner although there are sanctions exists in breach of the code in some jurisdiction. Therefore, the voluntary and perhaps for the ethical code is less effective. (ACCA ³, no date) [Online] Principles-based approaches are required auditors to exercise or apply judgement because specific audit may apply laws and regulations that impact on the audit objectives. However, it is depends in the ethical conduct of the auditors. (Gary Pflugrath, 2007) Fairness expression are necessary require in the audit opinion which limits of the consistent application. Auditor may not to be able to express unqualified opinion and judgement if there are uncertainties affecting in the financial statement. Materiality by nature or by context may found in consideration. (Intosai ², no date) [Online] 2.3 Other recommendations Apart from Code of ethics, there is support evidence that shows positive relationship between audit committees and auditors independence which means that audit committee can enhance auditors independence. (Nur Barizah Abu Bakar, 2005) Audit Committee is a committee of independent non-executive directors that provide independent point of reference to auditors with view of a companys affairs other than executive directors. By providing additional channel of communication, the audit committee are strengthening the independence of external auditors. (United Nations, 2006) [Online] The audit committee might provide an impartial body for auditors to consult conflict of interest. Audit committee will also lead to increasing public confidence in the credibility and objectivity of financial report. (ACCA P7, 2009) Besides that, audit effectiveness and independently can be raised through audit quality control process. The international Standard on Quality Control (ISQC) further enhancing confidence in independent audit by encourage stakeholders work together with open and constructive dialogue in order to contribute the work of government and regulators by generating practical ideas. (ICEAW ², 2006) [Online]. ISQC also provides guidance for auditor to acquire required capabilities and competences by impose quality control in perform audit and reviews financial statement and other assurance and services engagement. The ISQC require all professional accountants perform all professional responsibilities with integrity and maintain objectivity which gain the publics confidence in the credibility of their work. (Brenda Porter, 2008) In additionally, IFAC also issued the Continuing Professional Education programme (CPE) to enhancing the professional technical skills and competences which help to develop independent of professional accountants. CPE provides high level of training to helps it members acquire the knowledge they need to face the contemporary rigors and challenges of the professional. (MIA, 2007).CPE provides rapid development in legislation, accounting standards and guidelines, technology development and increase public expectations of the services to maintain professional competence and ensure due care at all times. (MIA, 2005) [Online] By developing the higher professional standards and fostering greater sharing information between member and expert of the industry, it geared enhancing the quality of the profession. (MIA, 2007) Conclusion IFAC code of ethics plays an important element for professional accountants to serve public interest. The Code has emphasize the important for external auditors to be independent in provide reasonable assurance engagement. With guidance by the Code, the professional accountants can provide high-quality standards works with access of truthfulness and confidentiality financial reporting. From positive view, the independence can be strengthen up by the code of ethics with comply with the fundamental principles and conceptual of framework which allow professional accounting achieve their objective of accounting profession and maintain competences in practices. Besides that, the code of ethics had been revised in order to strengthen independences requirement. The code also helps in facilitate harmonisation. The code always based on principles-based approach to provide flexible for professional accountants. Principles-based approach in the Code also provides numerous set of guidance for every possible situation. Apart from that, the principles-based approach of IFAC code provides robust structure to many different circumstances. It is also suitable for business environment that rapid in changing to allows multitude circumstances. Whereas from negative view, the Code needs time consuming and cost incurred to absorb the new information, new technologies and knowledge and skills. The Code also creates loopholes from professional accountants which will possible discredit the profession. Independent cannot be strengthening because of pure-lip-service and self-binding agreement that transgress moral norm. The principles-based approach of IFAC Code has some deficiencies. The guidances examples may mistakenly interpret as it is lack of precise guidelines. IFAC Code also does not and cannot capture all ethical circumstances and dilemma. The principles-based approach also requires the professional accountants provides too many judgement which may brings to uncertainties of financial statement. Thus, besides the IFAC code of ethics, the professional accountants are advices to further develop other international standards or regulated body such as audit committee, ISQC and provide CPE to strengthen independent of auditors in providing assurance service.

Hirohitos Japanese Surrender Essay -- essays research papers

Hirohito and The Japanese Surrender The world was hectic in the 20th century. The first plane was flown, World War I took place (1914-1918), communists took over Russia and China (1917), penicillin was discovered (1928), the U.S. stock market crashed (1929), and the DNA’s structure was discovered (. However, on the eastern side of the world, the most notable occurrences were probably Hitler’s rise as chancellor and his launching of the Kristallnacht, the German invasion of Poland, Japan’s bombing of Pearl Harbor, and the Holocaust. Further east, specifically Japan, its 124th Emperor had just inherited his father’s place, right before entering World War II. Throughout Hirohito’s years of leadership, he made several decisions for the country. One of his best moves being his announcement of Japan’s unconditional surrender on August 15th, 1945 during World War II. If Hirohito had not administered this military surrender, Japan would not have been able to develop and flourish in such a way that it has in order to reach such a point of success and progress – such as becoming the world’s 14th richest country. If Hirohito hadn’t surrendered Japan, his place in Japan’s government would’ve been abolished. Because of this admitted defeat, he thus showed his affection for his people by ending their suffering by ending their side of the war and in return, Japan’s economy and the country’s income thrived, the people remained loyal to their Emperor. Hirohito was born in the Aoyama Palace in Tokyo, Japan, on April 29th, 1901 to the name of Prince Michi No Miya. As a child he was tutored by Kimmochi Saionju, the former prime minister, in the areas of mathematics, history, science, and governmental management and r... ...954. However, once Japan began to flourish, it has now become the world’s 14th richest country – having a GDP per capita of $32,640 (2006). Despite a major stock market crash in 1990, from which the country is recovering gradually, Japan remains a global economic power today and is now bidding for a permanent seat on the United Nations Security Council. Had it not been for Hirohito’s decision to surrender Japan to its allies during World War II in 1945, Japan would have been given the opportunity to thrive both economically and socially as it has to this very day. Hirohito put his people as his foremost priority, and this undivided care led him to make the best decisions for Japan. His military tactics and thought process brought Japan to its success and it is thus why Japan is now one of the most recognized and distinguished countries of the modern-day.

Money and its supply

Increasing money in supply can lead to inflation where the general prices of goods and services rise dramatically. This erodes the purchasing power of a currency and the value of other monetary items. Moreover, this may create uncertainty among investors concerning future inflation and this reduces saving and investment. Lastly, inflation makes lending institutions to stop lending or charge high interest rates because of its declining value. Reducing money in circulation so as to curb inflation may lead to price decline of goods and services and consumers would horde out their money hoping that it will increase in value in the future.When consumers stop spending, movement of goods declines making businesses to make losses leading to unemployment. Borrowing becomes prohibitive since businesses are forced to spend more when servicing the debt. Government and stability of its currency The government can maintain a stable currency by ensuring that the monetary policy is effective and eff icient. The exchange rate system should not be controlled and the movement of currency in and out f the country should not be restricted by the government. Both monetary and fiscal policies should be stable so as to ensure that the rate of inflation does fluctuate unnecessarily.This will insulate the legal tender from global economic shocks. The government can use fiscal policies by regulating spending and taxation to increase economic growth during low inflation and high unemployment, and lower it during low unemployment and high inflation (Hanke, 2003). Factors that would undermine a stable currency include regulation of the exchange rate of a currency or the movement of the currency in and out of the country. In addition, increasing money in circulation when economic growth is stagnant would lower the value of the currency and create inflation. Emerging economy and a wealthy countryThe law of comparative advantage argues that, nations can benefit from trade by engaging in trade e ven when one country lacks absolute advantage in producing goods being traded. For example, Mundania and Lalaland are two nations each producing both jackets and sandals. Mundania is efficient and produces 100 jackets and 140 sandal every hour compared to Lalaland who make 80 jackets and 60 sandals per hour. Mundania enjoys absolute advantage in production of both goods. Working 40hrs per week, both countries produce 180 x 40hrs = 7200 units of jackets and 200 x 40 = 8000 unit of sandals.However, if factor cost in production of jackets in mundania is more efficient compared to Lalaland, Mundania would concentrate solely in jacket production. The 40 hours spent in sandals production would enable production of 8000 jackets in Mundania per week. Moreover, Lalaland would concentrate on sandals production and increase production to 8000 per week. Jacket production not only remains stable but increases considerably because of specialization. Country ranking Kenya’s competitiveness has stagnated over the past year and several policies ought to be enacted to improve its performance.It has improved in its capacity to innovate through research and development and collaborating well the institutions of scientific research to those in business field. To enhance competitiveness, I would improve both the education sector and job training skills so as to increase the number of skilled workers. The country’s economy has reformed considerably with a considerable portion being sustained by the financial market due to increased access to loans and development of the stock market. This is in line with the findings of world Economic Forum (2009-2010)This sector needs more support through reduction of bureaucracies and enhancing transparency. Moreover, public institutions have been known to be inefficient as a result of corruption and this need to be addressed urgently. Anti-corruption agency should be established and given power to prosecute corrupt officials. I woul d also uplift the living standard of people by ensuring the health facilities are accessible to all and increase housing sector by seeking international aid to construct affordable houses especially in urban areas to avoid growth of shanties and overcrowding.

Your Guide to Creating a Personal Brand That Will Make You Stand Out

Your Guide to Creating a Personal Brand That Will Make You Stand Out When you’re on the job hunt, you have one fantastic thing working for you. Not your lucky interview shoes. Not even your resume (though a great one is a necessary part of any job search). It’s you. Your personal brand is a tool in your arsenal that can really help you stand out from a crowd of similar resumes, and get to the next steps. If you’re not sure what your brand is or what it should be, let’s walk through what it means to have a brand, and how to build it. Why Do You Need a Brand?Think about what branding is, and does. It tells a story about a product, usually about its quality and reliability. Every commercial, every ad, every website- they’re all trying to tell a story. You need this car because it’s reliable and energy efficient. You need this soda because it means you’ll create happy memories with friends and family while sipping cold drinks. You need to get your news at this site because it is fast and accurate. Whatever that company wants you to think about their product, they try to convey via branding.You can apply that same thinking to your own life and career. What do you want people to think of when they think of you? It should be a clear, to-the-point message. Claire is an innovative problem-solver. Manny is a results-focused manager who leads his team to exceed sales goals. Terry prioritizes efficient service and top-notch customer experience. Having that kind of elevator pitch about yourself ready to go not only gives you a punchy line to use with recruiters and interviewers, but also gives you a center point around which you can build your resume, cover letter, interview prep, etc. It takes the pressure off of the hiring manager to figure out just who you are, and lets them concentrate on how you would fit in, and what experience and skills you bring to the table.How to Identify Your BrandIt’s okay if you don’t know yet what you want your brand/narrative to be. If you havenâ €™t really thought about it before, it’s not likely you’ll instantly hit an â€Å"a-ha† moment that sums up your professional essence into a catchy one-liner. Start by asking yourself some key questions:What is the best quality you offer, or service you provide, when it comes to your career? Do you have a stellar customer service record? Do you have an eagle eye for detail? Are you great at bringing different kinds of people together to get a project or task done? Could you sell anything to just about anyone? Think about your most â€Å"sellable† quality as a professional and as a potential employee.What do you value most in a job/company? Personal values are important (you wouldn’t want to take a job that violates your personal beliefs), but here we should be focusing on what you value in your career. For example, if helping others is important to you, then that’s a core value, and you may want to focus on teamwork or customer service i n your personal branding. Other examples of core values might be innovation, creativity, strong reputation, global focus, environmental responsibility, or work-life balance.What are you passionate about? What drives you? Why did you choose this field in the first place? Why do you want to continue and grow in it? Figuring out what motivates you and pushes you forward can help you really zero in on what your personal brand can be.What are your talents? What have you been recognized for, in the past? What do you think are your natural strengths? What can you do better than other people? Again, for this exercise focus on work-related talents, or general life talents that could be applied to your job. If you’re a stellar trombonist, that’s great, but how does that apply to your career in retail sales? If at all possible, connect your talents to specific outcomes or accomplishments at work.What are your goals? This can help you start to focus your brand, aligning your curre nt story with where you want to be. Be as specific as possible in naming your goals- ones like, â€Å"I want to be making double my salary in ten years† or â€Å"I want to be CEO† are not helpful. A more effective approach here would be thinking about the next five years or so, and the milestones you’ll need to hit.Once you have all that information gathered (just notes, nothing too complicated), you can start identifying the most important parts, and distilling them down to just a sentence or two. I am a highly organized people person. I am a creative thinker with a passion for helping others. I am a whiz at finding new ways of doing things to make my job more efficient. I am good at team-building, and want to take my leadership skills to the next level.Finding your personal brand story isn’t the end result here, though- now you have to put it into action.5 Steps to Build Your BrandHere comes the â€Å"hard work† part- or at least the more time-co nsuming part. These are the things you should be doing to bolster your brand, and make sure you’re getting the message out there.1. Build your social media profile.If all of your current social media accounts are personal ones, where you post pictures of your most recent vacation, talk about what you’re watching on TV, or posted stuff throughout your, uh, younger and more carefree days, it’s time for an upgrade. Switch personal Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter accounts to private settings, to be enjoyed only by you and your personal friends and family. Companies and hiring managers don’t hesitate to do online searches these days, and the last thing you want them turning up at the top of the search page is that unfortunate photo of you from your old Cancun spring break. Sure, it may have been years ago now, but a margarita funnel doesn’t exactly say â€Å"professionalism.† Shutting those away from public consumption definitely helps in projec ting only the best (and least controversial) image of yourself. Make sure you do basic searches for your name on a few different search engines to see what comes up- and what kind of damage control you’ll need to do.If you’re starting new accounts for your brand, keep it simple- use a variation on your name. Search for people in your field, professional associations, or blogs and sites in your field, and add them so that your new feeds are chock full of useful information. When you post content, make sure you’re posting things that are engaging, on topic, and focused. You don’t need to post every day just for the sake of posting, but try to get in the habit of posting at least a few days a week. The point is to engage and raise your profile, not lurk.2. Create a personal website.Existing social networks are great, because they’re easy to use and have built-in pools of people and content so that you can get up and running right away. But you should also take the step of building your own personal website, which you can use as a kind of living resume/business card/snapshot. You don’t need to be a graphic design expert- and if the late 90s/early 00s taught us anything, it’s that people left to their own devices will end up using weird gifs and blinding color combinations. Lucky for us now, there are lots of great tools that let you build a custom site from a series of options.On your site, you have total freedom. You can host your resume (with even greater detail), write a blog, post-how-to videos, post a portfolio of your work, link to your social media profiles- whatever you want to include. Make sure you emphasize the top points you came up with during your â€Å"what is my brand?† exploratory phase. If you include the link to this site on your resume or in your cover letter, it’s a chance to let the reader get to know you better.And don’t forget to keep things consistent: the messaging from your social media profiles should be the same high points you hit in your website. The clearer and more cohesive your message is, the more memorable it’ll be.3. Get a business card.Seems like a throwback, doesn’t it? But sometimes there’s no replacement for the good old-fashioned act of handing someone a card with all of your contact info on it- especially in situations where you don’t have time to spell out your personal URL. Plus, you’ll have extras to put in those fishbowls at restaurants and potentially win a free lunch (bonus!).4. Build your network.What good is a brand if no one knows about it? Start making connections (or at least more of them). Find people in your field you find interesting, and follow them. Engage in conversations online about your field. Post interesting articles you find, or talk about ideas you have for your field. Look up old colleagues who are still in your field, and re-open that connection.5. Keep engaging.Thereâ⠂¬â„¢s no point where you’ll be able to say, â€Å"There’s my brand, it’s done. I’m just gonna sit here and wait for opportunities to roll in.† Maintaining your brand is going to be a crucial part of the process. For one thing, you don’t want your brand to start looking outdated. For another, it’s your own reputation you’re holding here, so you want to at least keep an eye on your social media profiles to make sure you’re not missing anything, or ignoring attempts by others to engage you.Finding and building your brand is one of the best investments you can make in your career. It helps you figure out what your best qualities are as a job applicant, and can help you make the best decisions for your career overall. If you make these maintenance tasks part of your daily and weekly routines, you’ll be living your brand without even realizing it, and will be your own best brand advocate.

whiskey rebellion essays

whiskey rebellion essays In 1790 a new nation was on the rise. With the help of the French, the people of the thirteen colonies of America had united together to defeat the greatest empire of the world. This was the shining moment of America. Freedom was theirs, and this is what they have been wanting since the pilgrims arrived almost two centuries before. They were now going to take on an even greater task then fighting the British: establishing a system of government that would be fair and that would be accepted throughout all of America. One thing the founding fathers knew they had to do was establish a document that would unite the states under one system of laws, so they would be a single country. The Articles of Confederation were too weak and could not meet the demands the country as whole needed, so they drafted a new constitution. This new constitution was a brilliant document that expressed how there is no true sovereign power because the power ultimately lies in the people. This document, created in the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia, was to become the foundation for our country and is still the chief document that the America of today follows. Nevertheless, there were still some people opposed to this document. The Anti-federalists, as they were called, believed that if the constitution was enacted then the central government would become too powerful. They believed America would then become a tyrannical government, which is what America fought so hard to get away from. The anti-federalists said a bill of rights was needed to stop the national government from being tyrannical. It was clear that this country would need a bill of rights, so one of the main jobs of the first Congress was to create one. In 1789 twelve amendments were approved by congress and by the end of 1791 they had been ratified by the states and had become the Bill of Rights. They were the first ten amendments to the constitution, and they prevented a national governm...

Biography of an Economist Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

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Corporate Social Responsibility Term Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

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