I have a great deal of respect for Rosa Say because she so often says so elegantly exactly what needs to be said on a topic.
Recently, she shared her twelve rules for self-leadership, and I think they nicely sum up core practices that can help leaders become great leaders. These twelve rules can help make a leader more authentic in their practices because they are essentially leading by modeling, and it’s been my experience that’s the easiest way to lead any group.
As my quote collection recently reminded me, leadership is action. It’s not a place for “Do as I say, not as I do.” When you act, when you embrace these ideas for leading yourself, you are creating a situation where people can clearly see your vision. They don’t feel conflicted. They might even feel better, not only about your leadership, but also their role in your organization.
Governing yourself, doing what you expect others to do, strengthens your leadership and your credibility.
Posted by Rebecca as Leadership and management at 8:27 AM EDT
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Shortly after borrowing MarioKart DS from my roommate, I realized I wasn’t getting much work done. I set up a marquee screen saver that read: “No MarioKart until you’ve edited something.”
Not much got edited after that, but my interactive writing queue became emptier after that.
Once I got my MarioKart habit under control, I hit a “zone” period. To help keep myself going, the marquee was changed to read: “You’re on a roll! Keep it up!” I ended up accomplishing two weeks’ worth of work in three days.
It’s occurred to me that because I can see my computer from anywhere in my room, the marquee screen saver is a great means of creating a message I want myself to abide by. It’s fairly hard to ignore because it’s large, bright, and inescapable!
To set one up, go to your Control Panel, and click on “Display. Click the Screen Saver tab. Select Marquee out of the list, and then hit “Settings”. Here, you can create your text, change the background color, and format the font. Make sure your message is readable, and in a color scheme that will catch your attention. (For me, I avoid the bright colors because I naturally gravitate away from those colors. My current screen is maroon with silver writing because that will catch my eye.)
In case you’re curious, my current screen saver (a result of my frustration with not having enough hours in the day and trying to catch up on a big task) reads: “Some progress is better than no progress. Establish your priorities.” It’s helped reduce my stress, and I’ve accomplished more than I thought I could this week.
Posted by Rebecca as Creativity, inspiration, and motivation at 7:59 AM EDT
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If you’re just starting to your first job search, you could probably use a little advice (okay, a lot of advice) to help you develop the resume that will help get your foot in the door. Is this you? Then, you should read this article. It explains some of the less-understood, but very important, sections of the resume.
Of course, you might need some other advice, too.
Remember that school and extracurricular activities are perfectly well-suited for the first resume. Remember to proofread your resume (or have someone else read over it and give you feedback). Remember to tailor it to the job you apply for, and to not send out your resume indiscriminantly.
Posted by Rebecca as Changing careers at 7:53 AM EDT
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Sometimes, your career can only move because you put things in motion. Here are some great tips to help inspire and advise you to become your own lit fire.
- Ask and don’t take no for an answer: The best way to get what you want to is to let people know what you want. It’s a good life skill. I became a communicator because I asked for the job. Once I had communication experience under my belt, I started to ask for UX opportunities and unknowingly started structuring and restructuring information in help systems with better information architectures.
- Just do it: If you see a need, fill it. Sometimes it may not be appreciated, but more often these kinds of actions are labeled as “proactive.” If you see a bad design, sketch a better one and show it to the most appropriate person, being sensitive to the group dynamics and company culture. Make sure you appreciate the effort already given and stress that you are representing the users’ interests.
- Build relationships: with coworkers and managers, making sure to tell them your career aspirations. Tell them in terms of “this is what I do and this is how it can help you.” One day, when a developer or manager has a problem, she might think, “Theresa told me she could help me if I ever had this problem…” It takes effort (and constant vigilance!), but it can work.
- Get a mentor: I’ve had several mentors over the years. At one company, the UI designer taught me task analysis, user analysis and UI design. He did several training sessions for the whole team. After joining the IA Institute, I found a mentor to help me identify my transferable skills and learn how to sell my services.
- Get your foot in the door: Taking a communicator contract can be a foot in the door to a UX job. You can get in, do a great job, figure out the company culture and scope out the opportunities for UX work.
- Take a class, network, moonlight: To gain knowledge outside a company, take a class on UI design or information architecture. Many websites have lists of these kinds of classes. Networking at local user experience groups is a great way to meet peers. Eventually, you might find small contracts you can do in your spare time. When you want to complete your move, you will already know people.
- Do informational interviews: From your networking, you’ll know people. Meet them for 20-30 minutes and ask them what skills they use, what challenges they face, what they like about their job, what they think you can do to make the move, what the market is like. Keep in touch, keep networking. (Source)
- Work quickly. Produce a lot.
- Attend to details.
- Be versatile.
- Make an effort to learn.
- Anticipate problems.
- Set goals.
- Display a positive attitude. (Source)
Posted by Rebecca as Skill building at 8:07 AM EDT
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One of the reasons some of my students like working with me is because I’m not afraid to admit when I don’t know something. It helps them feel like they don’t have to know everything, either.
But they also like me because of what I do after admitting I don’t know. I start trying to find out.
I’ve long known that I don’t know everything. Given that I generally come across as pretty darn smart, most people are very surprised when I don’t know something. Of course, I’m not okay with not learning something new when the opportunity arises, so I try to find out what I didn’t know.
This has had so many benefits for me over the years. First, I get to learn something new! (I like that part.) Second, I get to be helpful, another thing I really enjoy. Third, the person I’m helping actually gets the help they need (probably the best part).
I’m human. I don’t know everything. I’m okay with that. But if you need to know something I don’t know, then I’m going to help you find it. Amazingly, many of my students come to me with the inability to find anything without resorting to Wikipedia. Those same students tend to leave me knowing how to use a book’s index and table of contents to find information within the book they’re using. They know to go find another resource if the book they’re holding isn’t enough, and they know how to pick a good book. If they’re researching online, they know how to to create search queries that will give them results that are better quality and more informative than what they would have found on their own.
In all my years of retail, volunteer, and teaching experience, no one has ever killed me for saying, “I don’t know,” and they’ve never left me without finding out what they needed to know or at least being pointed in the right direction.
(Inspired by Scott Ginsberg)
Posted by Rebecca as Skill building at 8:30 AM EDT
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There are a million ways I could think to start this post, and not a single one of them would accomplish anything useful.
Basically, there are too many times when we rational adults give up the burden of thinking and follow someone else’s thinking. We do it without considering why we’re doing it, beyond the fact our friends or family are following this person. We fail to think about the person’s credentials, about what they’re saying, about our own personal opinions, experiences, and values.
We spend time teaching children to think for themselves, to become critical thinkers, and yet to follow the crowd so they won’t stand out too much.
what message are we trying to instill in these future adults? And what future are we modelling for them when we follow without thought?
These questions have actually weighed fairly heavily on me over the last several months as I’ve moved through work, through my readings, through watching fads and temperaments sweep through friends and family. What leads us to toss aside everything we know to be true and good to follow someone who got a six-figure book or talk show deal. Are we that afraid of finding our own way that we think we have to hang on to someone who managed to accomplish something? Maybe we feel we don’t have enough time to reflect and think analytically?
I actually started thinking that maybe I was just insane, but this post on being your own guru is slowly convincing me that maybe I’m not. Maybe we should all be taking the time to stop, to listen to ourselves (even if we don’t fully trust ourselves), to not blindly follow someone else.
Posted by Rebecca as Responsibility at 8:05 AM EDT
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