Casual Articles - Business

The Origins of Leadership Traits
Effective leadership requires leaders with certain personal characteristics to lead organizations. According to Hogan el al, anywhere from 48% to 82% of the variance in leadership emergence rankings was due to personality (p. 498). People who have personalities that match the big-five personality characteristics of "surgency, agreeableness, conscientiousness, emotional stability, and intellect" (Hogan et al) are more successful as leaders than those who do not. These individuals have the will and desire to look for positions of influence, are able to work effectively with people, are intelligent enough to see and understand complex issues facing organizations, and have the emotional strength and stability to make the sacrifices necessary to be an effective leader and give a sense of stability and commitment to teams and organizations.While many skills may be taught, these basic personality characteristics are likely gained during a lifetime of experience starting in the early years of an individual's development. These experiences are gained through experiences in the home, early education, team sports, early opportunities to lead groups, teams etc. By the time that an individual enters the work force, and is promoted to a management position, these basic personality traits are well engrained into the individual's psychological makeup.

publications that people in this niche market read.

One of the best ways to do this research is to sit down over lunch with an individual in your niche market and interview him/her. While you are at it, you can also test market some of the ideas you have for services and programs you might offer to see what kind of reaction you get.

Another way might be to conduct a poll, forum or focus group. Survey the needs of your niche.

Know your target market.

3. Develop Solutions

How can you help meet the felt needs and address the urgent concerns of your niche market?

Decide on a service or set of services you can offer that will help the niche market wit

Honesty and Integrity in Your New Hire - and How to Identify It
Is honesty and integrity important to you in a new hire? If so, how do you identify this in your job applicants?Zeroing in on seeming weaknesses in the resume, then asking pointed questions about them at the interview?That might work, but only if your potential employee doesn’t understand the interview “game.” With more and more job seekers either taking courses in both resume writing and interview skills, this strategy is becoming less and less likely to work. The whole focus of interview courses is how to overcome shortcomings at your interview.Perhaps you expect to hear the answer to the honesty question from your applicant’s references?You probably won’t. References are becoming more and more useless and employers become very wary as to what they say about previous employees. Unless your applicant was fired for a strongly proven dishonest act, it is highly unlikely the previous boss will give any indication of dishonesty.There are various expensive and complicated personality profiles that claim to give this and other information as part of a complete package. They take time, they cost a great deal of money, and they are seldom very specific on the topic of honesty. But there is a way you can tell if you job applicant is inclined to be dishonest. You can tell it immediately – wit

Solid clinical knowledge and skills may be enough for providing good therapy. However, it is not enough to get referrals and attract clients.

Getting clients is key to building a thriving practice. But this is where many practitioners struggle.

The thing is, you can make a living helping others. But you have to let go of the idea that the traditional way is the only way.

Psychotherapists can leverage their talents, expertise and abilities in many ways. There are many possible formats for delivering psychological help.

So, how do you, as a therapist, format what you have to offer? To begin, try looking at your services as a solution to a specific problem rather than as treatment for an illness.

The Eight Steps

To organize your efforts, you may find the following eight-step process useful.

1. Find a Niche

To niche or not to niche? There are many advantages to focusing your practice on a niche or set of niches, as described previously.

Specialties attract more clients than a general practice.

So, how do you decide on a niche?

To start with, look for the convergence of three factors:

1) What do you love to do? What type of clients, services or work do you thrive on the most? What are you passionate about?

2) What you are best at? Where do your talents lie? What do you have the potential to become the best at in your locale or region? What are your favorite skills?

3) What is lucrative? Will people pay for this service? Is there potential to have well-paying clients for this?

When you find a niche service that taps into these three factors, you have a potentially good niche.

Does that stimulate any ideas?

Ideally, you will find an underserved area that will continue to grow. For example, in my area, there are a shortage of child psychiatrists and play therapists.

Do some market research. Look in the media. What are the urgent concerns and felt needs that people have?

Your personal and professional experiences may give you some good ideas.

Colleagues may also be a good source of ideas. What are they talking about in the way of innovative psychological services?

To see what other professionals on the entrepreneurial side are doing, see the monthly newsletter Psychotherapy Finances (visit www.PsyFin.com for more information). Each issue contains at least one article about what practioners are successfully developing as niches.

2. Discover the Niche Markets’ Problems

What are the felt needs, which are not always the same as real needs, of the niche group?

How can you find out? Do some market research. Review literature on this target group. What are articles in relevant publications discussing? Read publications that people in this niche market read.

Another way might be to conduct a poll, forum or focus group. Survey the needs of your niche.

Know your target market.

3. Develop Solutions

How can you help meet the felt needs and address the urgent concerns of your niche market?

Decide on a service or set of services you can offer that will help the niche market with

Never Go Out Empty-Handed with Business Cards
There are several ways of showing your professionalism in the field of business that you have. It can be in the form of a business card, a letterhead or even a logo. Investing in these particular marketing tools would help your customers know that you are really serious about the products and services that are offering and that doing business with you would be a breeze.The most important of all these would have to be the business cards. You don’t want to meet a prospective customer that you got interested in your line of business go home without something to remind him/ her of your business.Every chance you lose with a potential customer would not look good for your business. Instead of having to write all your contact information on a sheet of paper that is more likely to be considered as trash.Bringing several business cards with you all the time would definitely add more opportunities for your business to grow and expand not just in terms of profit but also in the number of customers as well. Each time you leave your business card would be an opportunity missed in expanding and getting known all over.Designing your business card should not cost you that much nor should the printing be. You can design your own business card using the ready-made templates that you can search for online. You can even improvise it and not

atment for an illness.

The Eight Steps

To organize your efforts, you may find the following eight-step process useful.

1. Find a Niche

To niche or not to niche? There are many advantages to focusing your practice on a niche or set of niches, as described previously.

Specialties attract more clients than a general practice.

So, how do you decide on a niche?

To start with, look for the convergence of three factors:

1) What do you love to do? What type of clients, services or work do you thrive on the most? What are you passionate about?

2) What you are best at? Where do your talents lie? What do you have the potential to become the best at in your locale or region? What are your favorite skills?

3) What is lucrative? Will people pay for this service? Is there potential to have well-paying clients for this?

When you find a niche service that taps into these three factors, you have a potentially good niche.

Does that stimulate any ideas?

Ideally, you will find an underserved area that will continue to grow. For example, in my area, there are a shortage of child psychiatrists and play therapists.

Do some market research. Look in the media. What are the urgent concerns and felt needs that people have?

Your personal and professional experiences may give you some good ideas.

Colleagues may also be a good source of ideas. What are they talking about in the way of innovative psychological services?

2. Discover the Niche Markets’ Problems

What are the felt needs, which are not always the same as real needs, of the niche group?

How can you find out? Do some market research. Review literature on this target group. What are articles in relevant publications discussing? Read publications that people in this niche market read.

Another way might be to conduct a poll, forum or focus group. Survey the needs of your niche.

Know your target market.

3. Develop Solutions

How can you help meet the felt needs and address the urgent concerns of your niche market?

Decide on a service or set of services you can offer that will help the niche market wit

Enron 401K Program
You know in reviewing the Enron 401K program there was nothing wrong with it. The only real negative was that they had to hold the matching funds until age 50. The program had lots of options and it was structured great. Actually it was a model program for a modern day corporation.The stock options were the problem. Everything else was good. It was probably better than most Vanguard or Fidelity programs with low fees or worse off some annuity with hidden fees, penalties and restrictions or an Annuity Insurance Company which files bankruptcy leaving you high and dry.The 401K at Enron was fine really, progressive and better than most. The stock matched was free so big deal, it went up and went down, so what? The employees in the company may not have had control over it, but for some Enron employment was more of a party than resembling any real productivity or hard work ethic in the final days at corporate. Sure some people who had companies which were purchased by Enron had their retirement savings converted to Enron stock, well had they been watching they could have rolled it over then into something of value, but they did not because it was going up and they were greedy. So all in all, before you buy into the media court of public opinion you need to understand there is a lot more to the issue.Indeed, Fastow was a croo

come the best at in your locale or region? What are your favorite skills?

3) What is lucrative? Will people pay for this service? Is there potential to have well-paying clients for this?

When you find a niche service that taps into these three factors, you have a potentially good niche.

Does that stimulate any ideas?

Ideally, you will find an underserved area that will continue to grow. For example, in my area, there are a shortage of child psychiatrists and play therapists.

Do some market research. Look in the media. What are the urgent concerns and felt needs that people have?

Your personal and professional experiences may give you some good ideas.

Colleagues may also be a good source of ideas. What are they talking about in the way of innovative psychological services?

2. Discover the Niche Markets’ Problems

What are the felt needs, which are not always the same as real needs, of the niche group?

How can you find out? Do some market research. Review literature on this target group. What are articles in relevant publications discussing? Read publications that people in this niche market read.

Another way might be to conduct a poll, forum or focus group. Survey the needs of your niche.

Know your target market.

3. Develop Solutions

How can you help meet the felt needs and address the urgent concerns of your niche market?

Decide on a service or set of services you can offer that will help the niche market wit

Irresistably Attractive - Ways To Make Your Interviewer Love You
An interviewer's life is not always a happy one. In the thick of the action, people to see and truth - not lies - to get from them.And then to make a pretty important judgement of the capability of the individual. It's a tough life on the end of an assessment sheet!So, the big opportunity for you is to get in there and make their life so much easier. By doing this, not only will you stand a far better chance of being successful, because you get to tell your story, but you will also get them onside for you when it matters.And, did I mention that you will go into the meeting, clear on your tactics, in much more control than you might have before? Which gives you confidence - all the more important then!So what can you do.Here are Ten Steps to successfully have someone interview you!1. You listen well and pay full attentionBy paying full attention you show your interviewer that they matter; they are important and above all, you care and respect them!2. You just as interested in themTricky in an interview, as they want to know about you, but it needs to be what they experience from you! Self-preservation and looking after yourself are the most important and primitive of behaviors - but in building great relationships, it's vital to show that the other person is the one that matters most in

eagues may also be a good source of ideas. What are they talking about in the way of innovative psychological services?

2. Discover the Niche Markets’ Problems

What are the felt needs, which are not always the same as real needs, of the niche group?

How can you find out? Do some market research. Review literature on this target group. What are articles in relevant publications discussing? Read publications that people in this niche market read.

Another way might be to conduct a poll, forum or focus group. Survey the needs of your niche.

Know your target market.

3. Develop Solutions

How can you help meet the felt needs and address the urgent concerns of your niche market?

Decide on a service or set of services you can offer that will help the niche market wit

Are You Stuck in the Middle?
Are you stuck in the Middle? Are you working in one job and feeling dissatisfied but are unsure if you should “stay or go” or if you left, where would you go “to?”As a Career and Business Coach I work with clients who are in career transition, they want to advancing in their career, exploring changing industries or owning a business or may be returning to work after a period of unemployment.Being in a state of transition is like being stuck in the Middle. The middle for career transition represents the psychological space where we are in between opportunities, one foot planted in our former work world and the other dipping our toe into a tentatively unknown work world.Most of my clients say that this in between stage of career transition is the most anxiety provoking. Transition simply by definition can be exciting as well as disorientating. Herminia Ibarra, author of Working Identity states “at the root of “transition” is “transit,” a voyage from one place to another. As in any voyage, there is a departure, a disorienting time of travel and, finally a destination.”I’ve gone through several working identities myself, from sales and marketing in the information technology industry to the quieter world of psychotherapy and then to my perfect place, the warm, comfortable and all embracing world of coaching people in the fi

publications that people in this niche market read.

Another way might be to conduct a poll, forum or focus group. Survey the needs of your niche.

Know your target market.

3. Develop Solutions

How can you help meet the felt needs and address the urgent concerns of your niche market?

Decide on a service or set of services you can offer that will help the niche market with its challenges in an effective way.

To get ideas for this service, research the literature on what may be an effective treatment. Obtain training and supervision as needed. Are there any programs or approaches that you can adapt?

Example:

Niche Market: Heart surgery patients, post-surgery.

Problem: Compliance with post-surgery health recommendations, such as medication regimen, diet and exercise programs.

Solution: A behavioral health component to the aftercare program to help with cardiac care compliance. Some therapists are doing this with good results and profits.

Think in terms of a range of services for the niche market: workshops, groups, psychotherapy, consultation and coaching.

4. Design Packaging

Packaging is important.

After you have identified a solution for your niche market’s felt needs, I suggest you develop it into a step-by-step program.

Clients understand products easier than services, which are less tangible.

An example of a mental health package or product is a stress-management program with:

A set of curriculum

A workbook

A fixed price

Have a process that you deliver. Let your prospective clients know you have as plan and a process to help them.

This gives you more credibility and the potential client hope that it will be beneficial.

The process description answers the questions about how you help people and what you would do with them in therapy.

Delineate the steps of your process in a way that leads a person to say, “I want that.”

There are several other advantages to this. One is the way this will crystallize your thinking. You will also become much more articulate in describing the features and benefits of your services.

Now you have a marketable service to add to your service line.

For example, years ago, I identified divorced parents embroiled in high conflict over their co-parenting issues as a niche market. This, as we know, has harmful affects on the children and causes stress for the parents. And it’s a common problem.

My solution was to do targeted counseling with these parents on co-parenting more collaboratively.

I packaged this into a six- to 12-session program I called, “Cooperative Co-parenting for Divorcing Parents.” I outlined a five-step program and wrote a booklet describing the steps. This became a good marketing tool as well as an aid for my clients. (Niche + Problem + Program = Service)

Pick a niche market

dentify a specific problem that the niche market experiences

Develop a program to deliver your solution

5. Develop a Marketing Plan

Consumers do not know

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If you are struggling too hard and feel like a slave to your business, you need to learn what ultra-successful business owners and top executives all do to achieve their goals faster - with far less effort and struggle.

The internet as we know it may be reinventing itself before our very eyes. Either make the change or die a slow internet death.

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