OP-ED: Navigating Employment with a Disability

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October is Disabilities Awareness Month

According to the most recent data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, the unemployment rate for persons with a disability is 81.3% that means only a 18.7% employment rate. Among persons with disabilities ages 16-64, the unemployment-population ratio is 70.7% (29.3% employment-population ratio)

These numbers prove we have inclusivity problems in areas beyond the media & government websites. By “we” I mean people with disabilities. I am a wheelchair user and part of the disabled minority that has a higher-education degree. I am part of the 32% of working disabled persons who work part time and the 10.6% of working disabled persons who are currently self-employed.

At the time I’m writing this post, I’m simultaneously trying to boost my freelance salary to a full-time equivalent and/or find full-time employment. I wish I could claim to be an “expert” on helping people with disabilities find employment; I’m not. I’m a freelance writer who knows what the climb toward (and fall away) from full-time employment feels like.

I’m always learning on my journey. One thing I know is that if you’re looking for a job, it’s important to know your rights as a disabled person under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA,) the U.S. Equal Opportunity Employment Commission (EEOC,) the Department of Justice (DOJ,) the Department of Labor (DOL) and state and local government. All of the aforementioned departments are responsible for upholding the rights provided to you by the ADA.

I’ve also acquired a wealth of tips that have made job searching with a disability less overwhelming. Hopefully, this post will make your climb a little bit easier.

Know Your Employment Rights & What They Mean

After July 26, 1994, the ADA protected persons with disabilities from job discrimination by “all employers, including State and local government employers, with 15 or more employees.”

That sounds simple enough, but as with most laws, you won’t clearly understand your rights until you know the definitions of key terms and know where the loopholes are.

To be covered by the ADA, you must have all of the academic qualifications and work experience required by the employer to do the job. Your disability must be a “substantial” impairment, meaning that it affects a major life activity like seeing, hearing, speaking, walking, breathing, self-care, completing manual tasks, learning, and other functions. You must be able to perform the essential roles of the job with or without reasonable accommodations.

“Reasonable accommodation” can be defined as a modification or change to the job or environment that helps a disabled person perform essential tasks or receive equal benefits to other employees. This includes the application process.

Some examples of modifications include providing readers or interpreters, adjusting work schedules, modifying training or tests and more. Your employer is required to provide you with reasonable accommodations unless they can prove that doing so would cause “undue hardship.” Undue hardship is substantial difficulty or financial distress.

Employment practices that the ADA covers includes:

  • Recruitment
  • Hiring
  • Training
  • Firing
  • Pay
  • Promotion
  • Benefits
  • Leave
  • Lay off

During the hiring process, your employer cannot ask you if you are disabled or about the severity of your disability. They can ask you questions about completing job-related tasks with or without accommodation, including asking you to demonstrate how you would perform a task.

You cannot be required to take a medical exam before being offered a job. After a job offer, an employer can ask that you complete a medical exam if they require one of all employees. You cannot be discriminated against based on any information that comes from the exam. When you begin working, your employer can only ask questions about your disability if they relate to the job. All of your medical information is to be kept confidential.

Your employer is not required to offer a health care package that includes pre-existing conditions. The ADA does not require that a person with a disability be hired over other qualified applicants because they have a disability.

An employer can refuse to hire a candidate if they pose a threat to themselves or others. The threat must be an objective fact based on evidence. The employer cannot refuse to hire you because of a “slightly increased risk” or perceived risk to you or others.

Building Codes & the ADA

All of the employment protection in the world won’t help you if a building’s structure is inherently inaccessible. The ADA has compliance guidelines for contractors so there is an accessibility standard when building businesses. There are a lot of technical points regarding space needed for wheelchairs and it’s very technically worded and impossible to memorize. Unfortunately, there are loopholes and exceptions written in, as with most laws. But, it’s good to understand some basic rules and note if they aren’t followed upon your first visit to the building.

Tips for the Job Search & Beyond

The hard truth is that the ADA is not your biggest advocate, you have to be. It takes us more work to land the interview, and we can’t relax when we’re in the room if we want to get the job. Here are some tips I’ve learned to help you make job searching less stressful than it already is.

Tip 1: Use Your Resources

If you have resources available to help you find a job at the level your qualification/experience allows, use them. Able-bodied people do it all the time.

Networking with a disability can be difficult, especially in person. I find that as a wheelchair user, I’m constantly fighting to be heard. A group of people (OK, honestly even one person) is not likely to kneel down on my level, so I have to look up constantly and be loud often.

It shakes my confidence, especially in professional situations. Disabled people know that the ADA only protects us so much. Do what you need to do to level the playing field as much as possible. Here are some ideas:

  • Vocational services
  • Resume writing services
  • Headhunting services

The statistics above prove that even with the ADA in place, having a disability makes it more difficult to get a job. Don’t be ashamed to reach out wherever you can for help.

Always speak up for yourself. Make sure the jobs you are seeking are not below your intellectual abilities.

Tip 2: Know the Building

If, when and to whom you disclose your disability is entirely your decision. If you choose not to disclose, you still need to be sure the building meets your needs before an in-person meeting.

Have a friend or family member call to ask if the building is accessible. That term is general and means different things for everyone, so future accommodations might be necessary. (See above for some basics.) But any barrier that keeps you from having a successful interview or first day should be addressed as soon as possible.

If you are a wheelchair user and there is a huge staircase in front of the building, for example, you need to know of alternative entrances. Having a friend call is a way to maintain your right of non-disclosure for as long as you can. They don’t have to identify themselves or ask anything beyond basics.

Look at the bathroom before the interview if you can. If the bathroom doesn’t meet your needs or is being used for storage, address the issue carefully. Do not view the facilities with your employer.

If you feel like your rights are being violated, record it. Digital records are more reliable than paper these days as it’s more difficult to misplace them.

If you don’t feel comfortable asking a superior to record agreements or conversations for you, do it yourself. If your rights are being violated, you’ll need to prove it in court, and that’s not easy. The more records you have, the better your case will be. Contact a lawyer or call the EEOC for more information.

Guest Contributed by Sarah Turner

Sarah is an experienced content writer and digital marketer. She is a well-versed online strategist and produces quality content to help others improve their website. Her expertise covers site development, social media promotion, SEO and content creation.

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6 Ways to Mentor Others to Change their Trajectory and Yours!

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women working mentoring
In all great ‘mentor-mentee’ relationships, both lives are changed for the better.

As a mentor, not only can you share your experience to benefit another, you also gain from their unique perspectives and insights that differ to yours. Mentoring is a two-way street where, if maximized, can contribute to both you and your mentee’s growth and success in surprising ways.
If you desire to create successful mentoring relationships, here are six essential “do’s” and “don’ts”:

Tip 1: Don’t advise

Considering the traditional meaning of mentor is “advisor,” shouldn’t the one thing a mentor definitely be doing, is giving advice? Sharing your experiences and making suggestions is not a bad thing, but a truly empowering mentor knows that what creates more than giving someone an answer, is asking them questions. Asking questions allows you to invite the unique leadership capacities of another to come to the fore, rather than mirroring yours.

What if it was never about getting someone to do it your way? Even when someone comes to you for advice, ask them simple questions like, “What do you know about this?” “What are you aware of that’s required here?” and begin empowering them to find their own way.

Tip 2: Do Inspire

Inspiring others is ten thousand times more effective than advising them. By you not holding yourself back from being successful, being committed to never giving in and never giving up – and going for it with the speed, perseverance and determination you do – you become an inspiration for others to go as well.

Inspiring rather than advising also helps you avoid the trap of trying to get people to become more than they are willing to be. Most times, you want more for other people than they want for themselves. Trying to be the motor for people that don’t want to go takes a lot of energy and doesn’t lead anywhere.

Put your energy towards those you know can and will go further. Ask yourself: What unstoppable greatness can I choose to be to inspire others? Who can receive my contribution? Who is willing to be successful? Asking these questions will make you aware of those who can go and those who can’t and where you can make the greatest difference.

Tip 3: Don’t set goals

Particularly in a business mentoring relationship, the expectation is for the person you mentor to succeed by setting goals and attaining them with your help. The danger of setting goals however, is clearly indicated in the origin of the word, meaning “gaol” (a limit or boundary). With goals, your sights are fixed on an outcome. You become hyper-focused and invested in that result, excluding any new information that potentially threatens it – even if it would mean a change for the better.

Do set targets

Instead of identifying fixed goals, create broader targets of what you would like to achieve. Unlike goals, Targets are movable and more flexible. You can shoot at them numerous times and you can adapt and change them. As you create a project or run a business, you have to be open to constant change and re-evaluating your targets to match the next level of where you want to go.
Ask yourself every day: What is my target? Is it still relevant, or do I need to change it? Adaptability is a highly desired and required leadership skill. By setting targets in your mentoring relationships, you will increase your ability to use adaptability to create greater than expected.

Tip 4: Don’t visualize

Visualizing is great, but it has one big limitation: your mind. When you visualize, you can only see as far as your brain’s capacity to visualize things. It cannot go beyond that. And there is much more available than what your mind can come up with!

Tip 5:Do actualize

Actualizing is not just about visualizing or talking about what you desire, but making it show up in physical reality. Trajectory change occurs when you actualize beyond what you can visualize, and it starts with a question. Ask: What can I truly create that is far greater than I can imagine? What steps can I take today so that what I am asking for can come to fruition? What action is required for this to actualize?

A question takes you beyond your mind and imagination. It takes you beyond definitions – definitions of success, of what is possible for you, your business, or another person. Definition by definition alone is a limitation. If you don’t define your future, your success, your capacities – there are no limits to what you can achieve.

Don’t forget to allow mentoring to be easy! Successful mentoring should not be all about what you do, but about what you choose to be in the world and with others that creates the future you would like to see.

Guest Contributions are not necessarily representative of theglasshammer.com’s views. We have no formal or informal connection with our guest contributors.

About the author

Susanna Mittermaier is a psychologist, psychotherapist and author of the #1 international bestselling book, “Pragmatic Psychology: Practical Tools for Being Crazy Happy.”  A sought after public speaker, Susanna has been featured in magazines such as TV soap, Women’s Weekly, Empowerment Channel Voice America, Om Times, Motherpedia, Newstalk New Zealand and Holistic Bliss. Susanna offers a new paradigm of therapy called Pragmatic Psychology and is known for her ability to transform people’s problems and difficulties into possibilities and powerful choices. Follow on Twitter @AccessSusanna.

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You Might Not Be Having the Conversation You Think You are Having

Two Happy Business women outside the office talking to each other.

By Aimee Hansen

You’re not half as good at listening as you think you are.

What’s your first inclination? Dismiss the suggestion? Defend yourself? Conjure up anecdotes supporting just how attentive and caring and compassionate of a listener you truly are?

Would you be proving the accusation true? Most of us aren’t nearly as good of conversationalists as we perceive ourselves to be. In fact, some of the things we think make us great conversationalists might hinder our ability to listen to and support others.

In her book, “We Need to Talk: How To Have Conversations that Matter,” award-winning journalist and author Celeste Headlee, asserts that “conversation may be one of the most fundamental skills we can learn and improve upon.”

Bad communication not only harms our ability to relate to each other. It’s also expensive for business. Cognisco has found that poor communications cost business $37 billion a year.

While good communication, Headlee points out, is profitable: “Companies with leaders who are great communicators have nearly 50 percent higher returns than companies with unexceptional communicators at the helm.”

Here’s a touch of what she highlights in her collection of studies and work and why it matters for relationships of all sorts:

Five ways you might be compromising conversation:

1) You’re not actually having conversations.

Given the choice, over 65% of JPMorgan Chase employees dumped their voice mail in 2015. In 2014, only 6% of Coco-Cola employees kept theirs.

While we’ve culturally shifted to text and e-mails for reasons ranging from speed to control to record-keeping to habit, Headlee writes that research has shown “we are more likely to get our message across through conversation – either in person or on the phone – than we are using a written message.” A 2012 McKinsey study showed that a more selective and intentional use of e-mail would increase productivity by up to 30 percent.

Research summation across 73 studies found that empathy has been in decline over the past thirty years, but especially since 2000. Sitting in front of someone, or hearing the subtle intonations in his or her voice, can build empathy and understanding in a way that bridges gaps and “connects” us again as human beings.

2) You’re keeping your device at the ready.

It turns out that even having a phone on the table during a conversation – regardless of whether you ignore it – has a negative impact on the perception of the connection shared. A British study paired strangers at a table to chat, half the time placing a phone on a nearby table and half the time not. The researchers found that when a cell phone was present in the room (without being touched by either party), the participants reported a lower quality of connection, as well as lower empathy and trust levels for their conversation partner.

We are increasingly lacking real presence in conversations, which mindfulness practices helps us to address.

3) You’re banking on your intellect.

Headlee shares that being smart and articulate doesn’t make you a good conversationalist. In fact, “the smarter you are, the worse you may be.”

“I thought that because I was articulate, I was also good in conversations. But that’s absolutely not true,” Headlee writes. “Being a good talker doesn’t make you a good listener, and being smart might make you a terrible listener.” In fact, it does make you more susceptible to bias.

Headlee says we often fall into what Daniel Kahneman, author of “Thinking, Fast and Slow”, calls System 1 thinking, which is “quick, intuitive, and relies heavily on patterns we’ve learned after years of experience”. It simplifies by relying on assumptions or mental short-cuts, but short-cuts aren’t always right and are often more emotionally reactive than we realize.

She also points out that “a good conversation requires its participants to use their IQ and their EQ.” Too often we meet vulnerability of emotional sharing with a rational response, which does nothing to support someone who is sharing feelings.

Headlee gives the example of a person sharing vulnerably about his pending divorce and you throw out data on the percentage of marriages that end in divorce in an attempt to suggest it’s normal and okay. It doesn’t help provide the emotional support requested.

“Approaching emotional problems with logic is a strategy that is doomed to failure,” Headlee writes. Assuming you get it without really listening can be another.

4) You’re not transparent in expectations.

One of Headlee’s tips is to “explain what you want and what you expect, and be honest.” She asserts that it puts the other person at more ease when we are transparent about what we hope for from a discussion – and it makes you get clearer on that yourself.

She gives this example from her experience: “I’ve called you in to give you an official reprimand. But that’s as severe as this gets. You’re in no danger of being fired. I want to start this discussion by saying how valuable you are to me and the company. My goal is to help you succeed and make you aware of some issues that might be holding you back.”

It’s also important to be transparent with yourself about your own feelings, before you go into conversation, checking in on what you’re really bringing into the talk.

5) You are dropping out at the first hint of disagreement.

“What bothers me is that we don’t talk to each other but at each other,” writes Headlee. “and we usually don’t listen.”

Western countries are becoming unreadily polarized. A 2016 study found that “most Americans now believe people who disagree with one another demonize one another so aggressively that it’s impossible to find common ground.”

This is exasperated by the “halo and horns effect”, she writes: When we approve of one thing about a person, we generally judge everything about them more positively. When we disapprove of something particular, we’re more likely to judge them negatively in many other ways. We all make incorrect assumptions due to bias.

We are less and less willing to connect with people we disagree with, but Headlee asserts, “the need to have difficult conversations has never been greater” and on top of that, “there is no topic so volatile that it can’t be spoken of.”

“Listening to someone doesn’t mean agreeing with them,” she writes. “The purpose of listening is to understand, not to endorse.”

Despite different opinions, we need to bridge through our humanity, being able to empathize with the other person, including cultivating the ability “to see other individuals who face daily challenges that are equal to mine”.

Disagreement can’t be the end of discussion. It needs to be a basis for it.

“It only takes one good conversation to change your understanding of someone else’s world, your world and the world at large,” writes Headlee.

What Makes for Good Conversation?

Headlee raises ten strategies for sharing better conversations, and they all involve taking stock of your role in co-creating the conversation.

One example is becoming aware of our habitual compassion to switch the conversation back into our control and make it about ourselves, even when it seems like we’re “listening” – what Sociologist Charles Derber calls “conversational narcissism”.

In the Huffington Post, Headlee shares how she attempted to comfort a grieving friend by sharing in the experience of losing a father, but actually what she achieved was to turn the conversation around to herself in a way that made her more comfortable with the topic area and detracted from her friend’s pain and need for support in her grief.

Rather than support what the person is saying to us by seeking more insight into their experience, we’ll often shift and relate it back to our own. Because our minds seek convergent information, we’ll scan and find an experience that’s comparable and begin to mentally overlay that on rather than simply listen, which also means we may distort what is being shared with us.

Another behavior we can become aware of is unnecessary and harmful repetition, especially when it comes to negative feedback. Headlee points out that the chances of remembering something increases for you when you repeat it, but not necessarily for the listener. It usually just serves to create aggravation and can even prompt people to lessen their attention.
Those are just a couple examples of many ways we can improve our conversation skills in a profound way.

Overall, thinking we are great listeners or conversationalists doesn’t at all mean we are.

Like many things, however, we can train ourselves to improve through awareness, and dramatically elevate the true quality and effectiveness of the conversations we share.

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Women Still Prime Targets of Workplace Bullying

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bullying-women-looking-stressed-and-alone

Guest contributed by Patrick Valtin

Disengagement and bullying

More than 72% of the US Workforce are disengaged, costing the US economy over $500 billion in revenues annually. One primary (and often overlooked) source of employee disengagement is unsolved or badly managed bullying in the workplace; it affects 75% of American workers, causing lower productivity, lower morale and higher personnel turnover. Defined as repeated mistreatment of an employee by one or more employees, workplace bullying is hitting hard in the repute of US business leadership:

  • 61% of bullies are bosses
  • 71% of employer reactions are harmful to targets – versus 60% of coworker reactions
  • 45% of employees have reported worsening of work relationships in the last 4 years.
A Leadership Crisis

Women are more frequently bullied than men. In fact, a survey by the Workplace Bullying Institute found that 70% percent of bullies were men (versus 30% women) and generally, 66 percent of targets were women. The survey also revealed that women bullied women in 67 % of cases – versus 65% between men.

The same-gender findings about workplace bullying illustrate well the inadequacy of current non-discrimination laws and employer policies to cover bullying cases. Per the Workplace Bullying Institute, 40% of all bullying cases are considered ineligible by HR gatekeepers in organizations. Complaints go unfiled, and bullying problems ignored or discounted. This allows bullies to bully with impunity.

As reported by business.com, less than 20% of employers will help a bullied target, leaving 65.6 million victims without much recourse – other than, for 61% of them, leaving their job in order to escape the resulting emotional stress and suffering.

Per a 2017 US workplace bullying survey on employer’s attitude & reaction to bullying in their organization:

  • 22% never learned about bully’s misconduct
  • 26% did nothing, while complaint was filed
  • 46% investigated inappropriately, and nothing changed
  • 71% showed negative reactions
  • 23% took action with positive changes for target
  • 6% took action which resulted in negative outcome for perpetrator
Developing an anti-bully culture

Employers must either learn how to deal with bullies or avoid hiring them in the first place. But bullying would dramatically decrease if leaders would first openly and formally make aggressive or abusive conduct inacceptable. Below are some practical tips on how to minimize the issue:

  • Develop a formal code of conduct which (1) defines bullying in the workplace; (2) educates staff on the negative effects of bullying on personal & group’s morale and on the organization survival; (3) raises awareness and responsibility of every group member and (4) clearly defines penalties for non-compliance.
  • Create a “zero-tolerance” policy on the subject, comparable to zero tolerance for drugs or for sexual harassment; and enforce it at all levels without any exception.
  • Apply full transparency on the subject during staff meetings, while rewarding positive attitudes and discouraging/punishing bullying behaviors.
  • Ensure that executives manage by example, treating everyone fairly and with care, without exception – and condemning any bullying attitude.
  • Confront the bully without delay. Use a formal feedback form to report the perpetrator’s attitude and outline objectively any behavior that must change.
  • Train your HR staff to help people deal with bullying. Both the bully and his or her targets need to be educated and procedures must be known on how to deal with the issue.
  • Use happiness at work as a major focus of leadership. My white paper “Hire for Happiness,” explains why in a happy environment, it is harder for a bully personality to act freely.
  • Understand the bully personality and how to spot it.
Conclusion:

The destructive impact of bullying in the workplace can be minimized if leaders become more aware and more willing to do something about it. Fundamental principles of respect for others and for the “Golden Rule” (Do not do to others what you would not want them to do to you) make up the basics of relationship and should be part of a code of conduct in any organization. It is up to employers and their executives to enforce such fundamentals, to compensate for a lack of legislation on the matter to ensure appropriate attitudes toward all employees.

About Patrick Valtin

Patrick Valtin is the president and CEO of HireBox International, as well as an international speaker and author. He is also the author of the whitepaper “Hire for Happiness” available at www.hireforhappiness.com. Considered an industry leader in recruiting, pre-employment assessment, personnel performance evaluation and human resources development, he has trained more than 120,000 people in over 35 countries over the last 29 years. Valtin received an MBA in International Business Studies from the Moore Business School at the University of South Carolina in 1982; his clients over the last 29 years have included executives and sales representatives from Ford Motor Co., BMW, Mercedes, Motorola, IBM and Century 21. His book, No-Fail Hiring 2.0, is a bestseller on Amazon.

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7 Steps to Writing to Your Own Simple Self Improvement Plan

 

planCareer progression and happiness is intersected with the other elements of your life.

If you want to achieve the type of growth that brings happiness and satisfaction to your whole being, you need to focus on, among other things, your education, physical health, and fitness, spiritual health and personal relationships, in addition to your career path. To achieve better outcomes, you need to put your self-improvement plan in writing and without further ado. Here are seven steps on how to go about it:

1. Brainstorm

First things first, you need to have a foundation on which to build your self-improvement strategy. Hence, sit alone in a quiet room (definitely when the kids are safely tucked in!) and write down every goal, target or achievement that you wish to accomplish in future. While at it, be sure to use your heart and not your head. Write anything, and everything you want in life, however ridiculous or farfetched it looks, time for editing and logical thought will come later. It is through the continuous flow of raw ideas from your mind to the paper that your creative juices, as well as the imaginative side of the brain, will come to life and your plan largely depends on those.

2. Divide Your Goals into Categories

As mentioned earlier, your personal growth needs to involve every aspect of your life for it to be effective. As such, after you write down all that you plan on achieving or acquiring, deconstruct the list and put everything into 4 categories as follows:

• Intellectual – To include spiritual health, personal education, and general knowledge.
• Physical – Overall body health and fitness.
• Professional – Including money and finance, work relations, and any other career goals.
• Social – To include everything in your personal relationships, whether with your kids, romantic partners, family, and friends.

By dividing your goals into categories, you get a clue on which aspects of your life need more attention and most importantly, it helps you track your life progress.

3. Review Your Goals

We hate to be the bearer of bad news, but without a clear and strong “why” on each of your goals, your self-improvement plan won’t achieve much, just like the New Year’s resolutions of more than 91% of Americans that never get accomplished. Do people still do those by the way?

If you are like most women, losing weight is probably one of your priorities but why exactly do you want to do it? To rock your summer body or to be healthier and stronger? If it’s the former, you may end up backtracking at the sight of a chocolate cake. What we are saying is, only include in the plan things that are very important to you, and you will find it easier and more natural to do what’s required.

4. Focus on a Single Goal

Stereotypically and slightly generalizing here, women are great at multitasking and all, but as far as personal development goes, it’s much better, easier and more effective to focus on one thing at a time. Go through your list of goals and objectives, of course in the context of the four categories mentioned above and pick one for each category based on urgency and importance. Focus solely on those and only add more when your progress is satisfactory.

The good thing is, goals and activities in the different categories are mutually exclusive, and you can, for instance, join a gym and regularly attend social events even as you work towards your master’s degree.

5. Find the ‘How’

Now that you know what you will be focusing on sit and reflect on how exactly you will achieve your targets. If you need to, do further research on the Internet or even consult experts, like in the case of improving your fitness level. The most important thing is first to be aware of, and after that put clearly in writing, the roadmap to achieving your goals. For instance, if your objective is to increase your savings, you need to determine how much to save in a day/week, expenses to cut off or even better, how to make more money. As a suggestion, look for activities that you can turn into long-term habits, and that will have the most significant impact on your goals.

6. Take Stock of Your Situation

Depending on what you want to achieve, you will probably need some money, skills, competencies or abilities in the course of your plan. Thus, before you embark on actualization, make a list of your strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and resources at your disposal as far as your personal development journey goes. You may also have to consult or research on what you need here.

Having an objective look at your circumstances relative to your objectives and ambitions will help you prepare better for the challenge ahead, thereby reducing the possibilities of failure or false starts. It also helps you determine whether the goals you have set for yourself are achievable or beyond your reach.

7. Take Action to Actualize Your Goals

Now that you’ve written all that needs to be written, it’s time to get up and chase your dreams, literally. You already know what you need to do to achieve your goals so restructure your daily routine to include the daily goal-oriented actions and commit yourself to them. Eliminate everything and everyone that might cause you to falter in your journey. For instance, if it’s going to the gym, carry your gym wear to work to avoid going home first and then becoming too lazy to leave the house. It will also do you a lot of good to have a checklist to recap what you do every day towards your goals.

Final Thoughts

There is no conventional way to write a Self-Improvement Plan, and it’s all dependent on your preferences. However, we believe that if you write your plan according to the above steps, you will find it much easier to navigate through it and achieve your goals. Above all, believe in yourself and your goals, and the world is all yours to conquer.

Guest contribution

About the author

Jake Lester is an essay writer that is currently writing for edubirdies.org. The most recurring themes he covers are education, writing and marketing. He has his own writing style and this is why he is appreciated by readers. You may look through Facebook, Twitter & Google+.

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Why Gender Equality is Good for Men – Part Two of Three

gender pay gap

Guest contributed by Lisa Levey

Part One of Why Gender Equality is Good for Men looked at the positive effects for men in their relationships with their spouses and children.

Part Two focuses on the positive health implications – both physical and mental – for men with a more egalitarian world view.

Gender equality benefits men’s physical health

Gender is highly linked with health risks and outcomes and men continually draw the short stick. But men’s health challenges are substantially driven by their own attitudes and behaviors [which they can change.]

Men who espouse more traditional beliefs about gender make less healthy choices. They drink more alcohol, smoke more, and are more likely to take drugs as well as paying less attention to eating healthily or getting enough sleep. They’re less likely to seek medical care for preventive reasons or to follow their physician’s instructions when they do seek care. Real men don’t seem to think they need to cut their portion sizes as they age, limit how much beer they drink, or spend precious time going to the doctor but they make these decisions at their own peril.

Gender equality benefits men’s mental health

In addition to benefiting men’s physical health, gender equality plays a vital role in men’s mental health. Men more involved in the daily activities of raising children, as they rock their child to sleep, braid their daughter’s hair or give their teenager a shoulder to cry on, have the chance to experience a physical closeness and intimacy that is life affirming. Biology reveals that men are programmed for emotional connection. As men care for their children, the hormone’s associated with bonding rise, just as they do for women.

Gender equality powerfully benefits men’s mental health by countering the tendency toward isolation. In comparison to women, research indicates men struggle to a substantially greater degree with developing and sustaining friendships that feel fulfilling and meaningful.

Gender equality gives men permission to be soft – and bold, to be scared – and brave, to be silly – and serious, to be in control – and let go. It allows men the full range of their emotions, not just the socially acceptable ones like anger and desire.

Men who ascribe to less traditional gender norms have lower rates of depression and suicide, the most extreme response to the masculinity straight jacket that leaves men unable to reach out and to work through difficult emotions. Men commit suicide at four times the rate of women and middle age white men are more than twice as likely to kill themselves as the population at large. Clearly something is amiss for men.

Gender equality lowers men’s work-life stress

Men have been saddled with the primary breadwinning role for too long. And while the bias toward men as primary providers persists, a Pew study suggests there may be change afoot. While more than 70% of women and men reported it was very important for a man to be a good provider, women identified their breadwinning responsibility – and that of other women – as far more important than men.

It’s understandable why many men struggle with not being the primary provider, a role for which they have long felt acute responsibility and received social and financial reward. Yet many men fail to see how their partner’s earning capacity provides not only far greater security for the family but also far more flexibility for them. With a financial teammate, men can more easily contemplate starting a business, leaving a bad employer, or push for a promotion. Gender equality helps men to not feel stuck and without options.

Multiple research studies document that men in more egalitarian relationships report lower levels of work-life stress. What may seem counterintuitive for men is that devoting more time to their lives outside of work actually minimizes their work-life stress. The same has not been found to be true for women.

The conclusion seems to be that women and men who intentionally share home and child care responsibilities can simultaneously enable women to focus more freely on their careers and men to feel less pressured to always be working. It enables men and women to engage in multiple deeply meaningful roles in their lives.

Contributor Bio

Lisa Levey is a veteran diversity consultant, having worked with leading organizations for more than two decades to assist them in realizing the underutilized leadership potential of women. Her current work focuses on engaging men as allies and partners. She led the design and development of the Forte Foundation’s Male Ally signature resource platform for engaging men in diversity work and architected a pilot program to launch corporate male ally groups. She blogs for the Huffington Post and the Good Men Project on gender norms at work and at home. In the spring of 2018 partnering with her husband Bryan, Lisa is launching Genderworks, a coaching practice for dual-career professional parents to support them in navigating the obstacles to gender equality at work and at home. Lisa earned an MBA with highest honors from the Simmons School of Management and a BS with distinction from Cornell University in applied economics.

Disclaimer: The opinions and views of guest contributors are not necessarily those of theglasshammer.com

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How to Lean “In-Between” and Keep Your Career Moving

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Get to the top! Lean in! Break the glass ceiling!

These clarion calls from the power sisterhood sound exhausting, unrealistic—even undesirable—to women in the everyday sisterhood feeling pressured to turbo-charge their careers alongside caregiving for children, aging parents and the monumental effort to make it home in time for family dinner.

What if you’re a talented, ambitious woman who actually prefers to, or needs to, lean “in between”?

Today ambitious women are not only found in the corner office or charging the corporate ladder in leaps and bounds. Ambition has a new face at a time when women have respectable professional options beyond the tied-to-your-desk, 60+-hour-a-week corporate job.

If your goal is to pursue work with substance in a reasonable work structure, you have three ways to be on an employer’s payroll—without sacrificing professional stature:

1. Make peace with a current full-time job that has reasonable demands, don’t worry about advancing to levels that could swallow your personal life and find ways to “grow in place”.
2. Turn your current full-time+ job and long commute into a more flexible situation—reducing hours and/or working at least partially at home.
3. Find an enlightened employer who offers a more flexible culture and healthy paths to professional growth.

Keep Growing Without the Big Promotion

If a big promotion is in the offing and you’d rather pull the covers over your head than pop champagne, it’s OK to decline or postpone. It’s not the end of your career if you take a slower route to the next level or never make that jump at all. Evidence this is true is found in some of the most unlikely places.

Working Mother magazine publishes an annual list of the “50 Best Law Firms for Women,” including big, top-ranked firms women chose to exit in decades past. Now these firms tout reduced hours and remote work. Most ensure that lawyers who take advantage of family-friendly programs are not cut off from partnership or leadership positions. I’ve seen this sea change firsthand: an attorney I know works remotely in Vermont, travels to her New York office occasionally, and snagged the partner title at a prestigious firm on her own time.

When you don’t have the family bandwidth for a big promotion, these eight strategies can help you “grow in place”:

1. Define leadership beyond big titles. Recognize that leaders at any level head project teams and set work quality standards.
2. Broaden confining job descriptions. Suggest to your manager expertise you’re interested in attaining and particular projects that could expand your role.
3. Streamline current responsibilities. Make room for more skill development—zero in on better processes, ways to delegate, etc.
4. Collaborate more with team members and departments. Explore job shares—or multi-disciplinary project shares that could cultivate new skills.
5. Take the lead on training and mentoring. Help younger colleagues navigate work and life issues so that women, especially, take fewer career breaks.
6. Get greater industry exposure. Participate in industry associations, speak at conferences, write articles and more.
7. Sign on for legacy projects. Don’t get lost in routine tasks—raise your hand for initiatives that could go down in company history.
8. Help your company be a good global or community citizen. Research organizations that align with your company’s mission and be a volunteer or spokesperson.

To grow in place focus on breadth of responsibility and visibility so managers can evaluate you in broader leadership terms and acknowledge your own brand of ambition and success.

Kathryn Sollmann is a flexwork expert, speaker and career coach—and the author of Ambition Redefined: Why the Corner Office Doesn’t Work for Every Woman & What to Do Instead.

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The 3 Best Ways Busy Professionals Can Reduce Stress and Start Thriving

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women stressed

Guest Contribution

Ask busy professional women about what she most desires, and a lot will wish to reduce stress.

If you feel like you’re living on the proverbial hamster wheel, it’s time to make small changes to your day to reduce stress and save your sanity. Our tips will help you thrive instead of just get by.

1. Multitask in your personal life

Busy professionals are the rock stars of multitasking. But, multitasking for work is very different from multitasking for yourself. In fact, multitasking may be the wrong word to use. According to Entrepreneur, your brain time-shares rather than multitasks since it is only able to focus on a single task at a time. You must learn how to divvy up your time equally and effectively among tasks. How is this accomplished? Create a to-do list categorized into similar tasks so that your brain doesn’t have to totally change gears. Be sure to always keep your list visible so that you don’t feel that rush of accomplishment, only to realize you have more to do. If you start feeling overwhelmed, remember it’s okay to take a step back and get re-focused. In the future, saying “no” is an option too to avoid getting burnt out.

2. Use Your Lunch Hour to Reduce Stress and Refocus

Unfortunately, Americans take only a portion of their lunch break to eat, or they skip lunch altogether. According to the New York Post, one survey found that 50 percent of workers take 30 minutes or fewer on their lunch hour and that 29 percent work through lunch. Some of the best ways to reclaim your lunchtime include leaving the office to have lunch with a friend or exercising outside with a co-worker or friend. To maximize the benefits of getting out of the office, meet a friend outside to eat for 30 minutes and spend the other 30 minutes walking, meditating, or doing yoga. Physical activity gives you the true breaks you need from work to get refreshed and boost your brain function and mood to help you be more productive and have less stress.

3. Prioritize Tasks

Implementing time management practices is another excellent way to reduce stress on a daily basis. For example, create a checklist for work and home. Arming yourself with a checklist helps you focus and reduces the amount of time you waste on email and social media or chatting with co-workers. Be sure to organize your checklist from most to least pressing tasks and consider allotting yourself enough time for each one. By prioritizing, you will not only feel less stressed, but may find that you are better able to concentrate because you’ll know you’re giving your attention to the most important task on your to do list.

If you’re a visual person, put the checklist on your laptop or tablet or on your desk so you can mark off completed tasks, feel a sense of accomplishment, and know where you stand with your day. If you prefer to use technology, create a note or list on your smartphone; or download one of the many checklist apps.

Stress levels also climb when you feel like you have to do everything right now. One tip is to follow the two-minute and 10-minute rule, as described by Kyle Brost. If you have a task that will take fewer than two minutes, do it immediately so that you don’t face the stress of having too many incomplete tasks. However, if you have a task that requires more time, use the 10-minute rule. Commit to working on the task for 10 minutes. When the time is up, permit yourself to stop and move on to something else to keep chipping away at your to-do list.

High levels of stress prevent you from being productive and thriving. Do yourself a favor and multitask for yourself. Then, use your lunch hour to refocus and reduce stress. It’s also helpful to prioritize tasks and manage your time wisely.

Author

Julie Morris is a life and career coach. She thrives on helping others live their best lives. It’s easy for her to relate to clients who feel run over by life because she’s been there. After years in a successful (but unfulfilling) career in finance, Julie busted out of the corner office that had become her prison. Today, she is fulfilled by helping busy professionals like her past self get the clarity they need in order to live inspired lives that fill more than just their bank accounts. When Julie isn’t working with clients, she enjoys writing and is currently working on her first book. She also loves spending time outdoors and getting lost in a good book. Visit her site at juliemorris.org

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Unlocking the Power of Latino Employees in the Workplace

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Latina

Guest Contributed By Julia Taylor Kennedy and Pooja Jain-Link , CTI

Latinx Heritage Month is the perfect opportunity to celebrate the extraordinary – and ever-growing – economic influence of the Latinx community in the United States.

The buying power of the Latinx market is currently $1 trillion and projected to reach $1.7 trillion by 2020; if this community with its collective capital were a country, it would rank as the twelfth largest economy in the world. What’s more, Latinx labor will account for 80 percent of U.S. workforce growth between 2012 and 2022. Understandably, multinational companies based in the United States are desperate to unlock this growth market.

Take Toyota’s campaign for its 2017 Camry: the company created an ad specifically targeted to its Spanish-speaking consumers. The ad shows a man whizzing down a highway in a Camry, when he gets a call from his mother. He hesitates for a few seconds before he decides to decline the call and focus on the joy of driving his new car. Toyota collaborated with Conill, a Hispanic-focused agency, to create an ad that spoke to many Latinx consumers who cherish family values, but struggle with the desire to break away and live on the “edge.” Toyota’s ad was hugely successful because the company engaged an agency that understood the market in an authentic way.

We’ve seen other employers and entrepreneurs use their unique insights to create a differentiated voice in the mainstream. Take Christy Haubegger, founder and publisher of Latina magazine—the first publication of its kind to cater to the Latina population in the U.S. She created the publication to change the complexion of newsstands: “I was a huge magazine reader growing up, and you’d never see Latina faces on a newsstand. It was a striking thing. So, I was a consumer, I was the target audience, I was that person who wanted to see that reality reflected back.”

To unlock this powerhouse market, both Toyota and Latina magazine capitalized on insights from those who represent it. As previous Center for Talent Innovation (CTI) research shows, teams with at least one member who represents the culture of the team’s target end user are up to 158 percent more likely to understand that end user, increasing the likelihood of successful innovation for that audience.

Unfortunately, Toyota and Haubegger still remain outliers. The Center for Talent Innovation’s report, “Latinos at Work,” reveals that Latinx employees are caught in an unfortunate bind: they feel that in order to advance in the workplace, they need to tamp down their innovation-unleashing cultural savvy. A full 43 percent of Latinas and 33 percent of Latino men feel the need to compromise their authenticity to conform to executive or leadership presence standards at their companies. Overall, more than three in four (76 percent) expend energy repressing parts of their personas. To be seen as leadership material, that is, Latinx employees feel the need to cover or downplay who they are by modifying their appearance, body language, communication style, and leadership behaviors. Promotion patterns positively reinforce this belief, as those who spend a great deal of energy repressing their personas at work are almost three times as likely as those who expend less energy to strongly agree that they are being promoted quickly.

And the frustrations of Latinx employees in the white-collar workforce don’t end there. More than half of Latinx professionals (59 percent) experience slights and snubs in the workplace. Of that 59 percent, 24 percent say that others are given (or have taken) credit for their contributions, 22 percent say that colleagues tell them jokes that make fun of certain ethnic or religious backgrounds, and 18 percent say they are excluded from after-work “get-togethers.” They also lack sponsors – senior leaders who advocate for their promotion, arrange for stretch assignments, and provide “air cover” to take risks. A mere five percent of full-time, high-earning Latinx professionals in large companies have sponsors in their corners.

Here’s the good news: there are clear cut steps any organization can take to better leverage Latinx talent. To include, empower, and advance this crucial talent cohort, and as a result, tap into a not-to-be-missed market, employers can do the following:

Encourage sponsorship across difference.

The boost sponsorship confers on Latinx talent is massive. Latinx employees with sponsors are 42 percent more likely than Latinx employees without sponsors to report being satisfied with their rate of career progression. We have found in past research that sponsored professionals in general are also less likely to have one foot out of the door, and more likely to ask for stretch assignments and raises. This robust relationship can help Latinx talent achieve their full potential, and it can drive engagement and retention while fostering workplaces of inclusion, authenticity, and innovation.

Expand the idea of executive presence.

According to 53 percent of Latinas and 44 percent of Latino men, executive or leadership presence at their companies is defined as conforming to traditionally white male standards. Organizations can make this population feel valued and included by prizing authenticity over conformity and operating from an understanding that a range of presentation and communication styles can succeed in the boardroom.

Embrace and celebrate difference.

Every year, Coca-Cola celebrates Hispanic Heritage Month by recognizing the achievements and contributions of Latinos in the United States. In 2015, Coca-Cola launched the campaign #OrgullosoDeSer with a short film to celebrate the power of family and culture. Using the hashtag #OrgullosoDeSer #[InsertLastName], people shared the film along with special family moments and their own reasons for being proud to be Latino. “At Coca-Cola we have been a part of so many of the important moments in Hispanic families’ lives, and we want to continue making new memories with them,” said Lauventria Robinson, vice president, Multicultural Center of Excellence, Coca-Cola North America. “During Hispanic Heritage Month, we are celebrating the immense pride Latinos have for their culture and heritage, a pride that translates most significantly into their family names, which they carry with honor and joy.”

Latinx voices need to be heard and understood. Representation matters. Companies have an opportunity to tap into the unique insights of their Latinx talent and, as a result, tap into the huge and extraordinary Latinx market that awaits. There’s no better way to celebrate Latinx Heritage Month.

About the author

Julia Taylor Kennedy, Executive Vice President and Director of Publications

Julia Taylor Kennedy is executive vice president and director of publications at the Center for Talent Innovation where she leads digital learning and drives qualitative research and writing. She coauthored Mission Critical: Unlocking the Value of Veterans in the Workforce, Power of the Purse: Engaging Women Decision Makers for Healthy Outcomes, and Disabilities and Inclusion. A seasoned writer, producer, and interviewer, Taylor Kennedy has moderated sessions and hosted podcasts at the UN, Carnegie Council for Ethics and International Affairs, The Conference Board, and many others. She has also collaborated with business and gender experts on articles published in Forbes, Time, and academic journals, and has advised speakers for major platforms like the World Economic Forum and the United Nations. Previously, Taylor Kennedy hosted 51%, a public radio show on gender issues, and reported for NPR and NPR member stations. She earned a journalism degree from Northwestern University and a master of international relations from Yale University.

Pooja Jain-Link, Senior Vice President and Associate Director of Research

Pooja Jain-Link is a senior vice president and associate director of research at the Center for Talent Innovation. She drives research design and analysis, focusing on survey development and quantitative data. She has expertise in the use of business as a force for social change. Prior to joining CTI, she verified the social and environmental standards of Certified B Corporations™, worked on corporate sustainability at Bigelow Tea, and was an assistant editor of academic journals at Cambridge University Press. Jain-Link received her BA from Duke University and earned an MBA and Master of Environmental Management from Yale University.

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How to Write Inspiring Speeches to Motivate People

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presentation

Image via Shutterstock

Guest contributed by Stacey Wonder

All of us can remember listening to a great speaker.

Whether it was a school teacher that took your history class on an exciting adventure through time or it was an employer who really knew just how to sell the company’s message, good speakers are often few and far between. When a person speaks well, the experience for the audience can be truly magical.

Strong motivational speakers are first and foremost powerful storytellers. They do not spend their time reciting long lists of facts and figures. While that information may be included in the story they tell, the speech itself is not about these things.

So, how can you write the kind of speech that inspires people and moves them to take action? It all starts with careful planning. While most motivational speakers make it seem like they are just having a casual conversation with their audience, it takes a lot of preparation for it to feel effortless to the audience.

Spin in the New Light

One of the first things you need to do is decide on your message. Ask yourself, what information you want the audience to leave with. It should reveal a surprising truth about your topic. One thing motivational speakers do not do is tell the same old story. They may discuss the same topic over and over again, but they are known for spinning it in a new light. You want to find a way to question a commonly held belief; this statement should be so profound that it causes the audience to stop and think about your topic and analyze it from a whole new perspective.

When people attend a motivational discussion, their minds are already open and they are looking to be inspired. To be successful, you must deliver on that promise. When writing your speech, try to think of something new and innovative that will make your audience think that they have learned something totally new and exciting.

Give it a Rhythm

Once you have your message, you need to find a way to deliver it without sounding like you’re giving a lecture. Speakers that drone on and on without a rhythm usually lose their audience very quickly. Your speech needs to introduce new information on a regular basis. Generally, to keep them engaged plan on providing a new point at least once every ten minutes.

Still, you don’t want to introduce the point in a straightforward and factual way but deliver it in a way that is engaging.

The Beginning

One of the most important parts of a good story is the beginning. It is the time when your audience will be deciding if you’re worth their time. You need to deliver a strong and attention grabbing message within the first thirty seconds or you may see the audience mentally check out before you ever get started. A great example of a grabbing beginning you can read in Abraham Lincoln’s “Gettysburg Address.”

The best way to do that is to make your first sentence one that they are not expecting. Start by telling a personal story that can relate to your message. How long the story will be depends largely on the length of your speech. Obviously, if you have only 10 minutes to speak, your story should get to the point within the first minute but if you have an hour or more to speak then you have the time to weave in intricate details that will tie the audience to you.

Use Repetition

Just like with a song, repetition aids memory. When you hear a song, which is the first part of the song you remember? Isn’t it the chorus? Why is that part of the song so memorable? Because it is repeated over and over again throughout the song.

This does not mean that you just keep recanting the same words over and over again, like a chant. While that may work in some cases, the point here is to repeat the general idea behind your message. Try to work this idea into your speech at different intervals. This will drive home the point so that your audience will remember it long after they have left the presentation. Good example of a repetetive motive you can see in “I Have a Dream” speech by Martin Luther.

Choose words that the majority of people will be able to relate to. If your story is about a childhood experience, choose expressions that will evoke powerful memories from others but at the same time is unique. Consider some of these guidelines for how to start your story:

1. Make it different from anyone else’s beginning
2. Take your audience on a mind journey
3. Give your audience something they can relate to

If you have a well-thought-out message that you would like to deliver, but you feel that the words you choose are not that powerful, you can consider hiring an editor at such platforms as Upwork or EssayTigers.

Give Them a Buzz

Your speech should not be full of canned expressions. The more you try to copy other people the less likely you will engage your audience. No two people speak alike so no two people should deliver the same type of speech. Showcase your uniqueness in your speech.

Ask yourself, what makes you tune into a speaker’s message. This will help you to understand the kind of speech you should want to deliver. Usually, it is some type of conflict. A battle of the wits or a challenge between two different personalities. Read Susan B. Anthony’s “On Women’s Right to Vote” to see the example of how a speaker can present and develop the conflict.

If your story contains conflict you will draw your audience in and will be able to hold them there until you are ready to bring home your main point. Leave out a few details so that they will be on the edge of their seats, waiting with bated breath for you to deliver on your promise.

People who attend motivational speeches are looking to be wowed. They are looking for someone to point them in a whole new direction to a place they would have never thought of.

So, don’t be afraid to create a little drama, build up some suspense, and add a touch of mystery. Without conflict, the audience will be able to predict what is going to happen next and when that happens you will have lost them.

Bottom line, when you are writing a speech you are starting a relationship with your audience. Your first words should be chosen to draw them in with a promise of something great, something new and refreshing. Once you have captured their attention, deliver your message with a surprise; something that goes against conventional wisdom.

Repeat that message periodically throughout the speech making sure that you introduce a new idea or concept every ten minutes or so.

When you are ready to close, remind them of what they have learned, give them steps to follow through and finish by closing the loop and going back to the story you started with.

Disclaimer: The opinions and views of Guest contributors are not necessarily those of theglasshammer.com

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