Memo to managers: Watch your mouth!

As much as I enjoy the company of my supervisors and consider many of them my friends, we still work in a professional environment and they are a step above me on the food chain. So I watch what comes out of my mouth around higher level co-workers, but it's just as important for them to watch what they say, too. Here are five things you should never say or do around any young workers who you want to keep around:

"Put your i-Pod away."
Want to see your young workers jet to a new company after a few months? Tell them they aren't allowed to listen to their i-Pods in the office. I feel naked without mine. I work out with it, walk with it, attach it to my car stereo and listen to it when I'm working or writing. An old supervisor once told me to put away my i-Pod. I did. Until he left the room!

We all see the stories about small startups and Google's working environments. These companies are the gold standard for twentysomethings. Employees wear jeans and T-shirts and work from rainbow colored bean bag chairs. If the office I'm at doesn't even let me listen to an i-Pod, they are obviously behind the times. Who wants to work for a boring, outdated company?

"Pay your dues."
I understand the logic behind this way of thinking. There's certainly something to be said for putting in your time and learning the ropes before jumping into a management position, but watch your wording.

Ryan Geist once put it this way: "Don't tell me to pay my dues. Tell me to sell myself."

The point is, youngsters are not stupid. We know a few years of grunt work is to be expected, but we don't like to think of it as "paying dues." Young workers will respond better if you say something like, "develop your skill set" or "build your brand." These are two positive ways to imply the same message. "Paying your dues" is not entirely false, but its significance gets lost in translation. It screams negativity.

"Don't you wish we were on vacation all the time?"
No, actually I don't wish I was on vacation all the time. I plan to accomplish many things in my short time on this planet. Getting a great tan on a life long vacation is right above swimming with sharks on my to-do list.

If a manager that I plan to replace one day said this to me, I would have more than a few second thoughts. Desiring to be on vacation all the time implies that you don't like your job and you have little ambition. I don't want to work for a company that doesn't keep their employees happy, and I don't want to work for a manager who has no aspirations.

Read the rest at the Brazen Careerist.

No More Mediocrity — Lets Run Great Organizations!

I attended CompassPoint's annual conference last week–Nonprofit Day. The key note speaker was Jim Collins, author of, "Good to Great," and "Good to Great in the Social Sectors". He is so inspiring and he is an academic!! I aspire to be like him because he presents his research findings in relevant terms to nonprofit and businesses alike.

Jim challenged to strive for greatness in our organizations. He spoke about the difference between good and great organizations. He said great organizations have leaders who are disciplined, they focus on the who first and then the what. They have passionate ambition, and humility!! These leaders focus on building a great team of people around them and placing the right people on their bus.

I love the analogy Jim used about how we need to do clock building in our organizations so the clock will be able to run when we are no longer there. I've seen too many organizations struggle or almost fail because the founding Executive Director or a key leader left the organization. As a result, I am a strong advocate of putting systems and people in place so organizations can continue and be great without me. Turnover is so prevalent in the nonprofit sector!

Jim said that great leaders are able to reflect on how far they have come but also realize where they need to go. These leaders never unwaiver in their faith even with all the obstacles and time constraints they face. So, for all of us who love our to do lists, he encouraged us to create a stop doing list. This stop doing list will help us deal with our greatest issue of not having enough time.

One of the top companies that Jim writes about in his book, "Good to Great and the Social Sectors," is Southwest Airlines. In a time when the majority of airlines are struggling, Southwest shows amazing greatness which goes beyond the airline industry. On a personal note, My husband is currently a pilot at a commuter airline and his dream job is working for Southwest. I asked him the other day why he though Southwest was such a great company to work for. He told me Southwest is great because they put their employees first. By putting their employees first, Southwest has happy employees and as a result happy employees are great at their jobs!

As I reflect on Jim's talk, I realize many authors have written books about what the qualities are of great leaders, however unfortunately the majority of organizations and companies we come into contact with on a daily basis aren't great, they slide by with their mediocre work environments and bottom line numbers. We need to stop this mediocrity and create, as well as run great organizations. A leading expert in the nonprofit sector recently wrote on his blog, "We need less non-profits, not more." I would rather him say–we need less mediocre nonprofits and more great organizations, because great organizations have happier staff and are more effective at their work!! Phone cards

Dismiss the Myths: Be Your Best Promoter

Ask a group of successful, savvy, college students to begin the process of identifying their own distinctive brand by listing their accomplishments and you can feel the air getting sucked out of the room. Eager faces suddenly turn apprehensive. A couple of people will make self-deprecating jokes. Then, dead silence.

Why is it that world-beating college students struggle so mightily with branding themselves? The answer? They believe in myths – myths that need busting.

Myth #1: If I Am Good, They Will Come. Being good is not enough. Being all of the things you are and have accomplished is not enough. Toiling away when everyone else has gone home will not leapfrog you to the front of the pack. Creating the greatest widget will not by itself drive sales.

You must find a way to tell your story to people who will listen. And your story must be the answer to a question that prospective employers need the answer to. This is the biggest hurdle that most people must overcome.

If a tree falls in the forest, and there's no one to hear it, does it make a sound? The answer, in an increasingly competitive, dog-eat-dog 21st century world is a resounding, "NO.??

Myth #2: Marketing Myself Is a Dirty Business. Successful personal branding means taking a 50,000 foot view of yourself and your aspirations, looking down on yourself from a remote-enough planet that your "buts?? and "not reallys?? and every other self-qualifier you can come up with cease to exist.

Learn how to look at what's left of the former you as just another product on a very crowded shelf, where every other can of soup is jockeying for position and trying to knock you off in the process.
Successful personal branding means creating a brand identity that is authentic, consistent and memorable, one that you own and are proud of.

Myth #3: I Can't Control What Other People Think. You must learn to be the marketing manager of your own brand campaign. Why do people associate Volvo with safety or FedEx with overnight delivery? Because millions of dollars were spent to create that association.

Here are several simple steps you can take right now to bottle and market YOU.

1. Figure out who you are, what you stand for, and why you are different than anyone or anything else.

2. Create a story that communicates your value and your market differentiation.

3. Pull the key words that you have used to create that story and weave them into everything that you say, do and publish about yourself and your business.

4. Tell your story relentlessly, passionately and unapologetically to anyone who will listen. You will refine and improve it as you go along, figuring out which parts work and which don't.

Don't be afraid to begin your exploration of your personal brand identity. Claim your rightful role as chief flag-waver for for yourself.

Learning a Foreign Language — The World is Your Classroom

Clear skies, the beach and an over-sized margarita – that's all I've ever asked for in a flawless summer vacation. This year I definitely hit the triple threat.

Last week, I spent my summer holiday in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico and it was a vacation to remember. As I sat back in my cubicle on Monday the phrase "back to reality" was reiterated as coworkers dismally welcomed me back. It got stale real quick. But hey, nothing great lasts forever and if you're lucky, great experiences will leave you with a little something to remember.

Last week's holiday didn't leave me empty handed. I got a great tan, picked up some duty-free liquor at the airport, but most importantly, I made some new friends that inspired me to put my training wheels back on and rekindle a relationship with an old skill I've long forgotten – Spanish.

It's the beginning of rainy season in Puerto Vallarta. Most American tourists steer clear, even though what rainy season really means is up to an hour of rain each night, with clear skies for the rest of the day. Finding an English-speaking person was a rarity and my only chance of branching out to some new people was to pull out some old tricks. I took five years of Spanish throughout high school and college. Unfortunately, Spanish isn't exactly the same thing as riding a bike – you do forget. Lucky for me, I don't mind playing the "stupid American" role to make some new friends.

I met a great family of Mexican vacationers who were probably the nicest group of people I have ever met. Luckily they spoke better English than I did Spanish. If they didn't, we would have been totally lost. By the end of the week, I was starting to remember how to speak some broken Spanish. I was impressed with myself, but not satisfied. On the plane ride home, I vowed that I'd become fluent over the course of the next year. The world is full of too many interesting people and opportunities to only speak one language.

Of course, I work five days a week, co-run a website and barely have time to brush my teeth (but I do…really). How am I going to do it? My plan is integration.

Learning a new language can be easy as incorporating the lessons into your daily life. If you're like me, and if you're blogging you probably are, you spend a lot of time glued to the computer. Fortunately, there's a plethora of software out there made for people just like us. The most popular of the bunch is Rosetta Stone, which I plan on using. It's a pretty expensive package, but they claim to be "the fastest way to learn a language, guaranteed.?? I'm just considering it an investment in myself. If you don't want to spend a lot of dough, try typing in a few key words on Google. Depending on the language you're trying to learn, they'll be a heap of programs out there from pretty pricy to dirt cheap.

The next step is finding the time to put it to good use. My suggestion is to find that hour where you're really not doing much of anything and pop in a CD to take a lesson. Maybe it's your lunch break, perhaps it's first thing in the morning when you're just getting into the groove or maybe it's not until you get home from a hard days work. Whenever it is, find that time and use it to become a bilingual all-star.

The second step is to find a way to apply what you've learned. Luckily, I exchanged e-mails and became Facebook friends with the people I met in Mexico. We came up with a plan. I help them with English and they help me with Spanish. With all the time that young people like myself spend on social networks, it's about time we put it to good use.

You don't a have a friend from another country? Make one! If you blog, there's no doubt that you have some comfort with starting conversations with random people. Find someone who speaks the language of your passion and make a connection.

If you're better with face-to-face, find a friend at work. Like many modern day workplaces, my office is culturally diverse. My plan is to set up a few lunch meetings every month, buy a bilingual buddy a meal and let them listen to me rip apart their second language. Hopefully they'll give me some pointers along the way.

As business keeps moving global, the benefits of learning a second language become more and more significant. Roughly 12 percent on of the American population speaks Spanish as a first or second language. That's over 30 million people! And what about the Chinese? They're kicking ass economically and could surpass the U.S. in the near future. Maybe some Chinese lessons is what it'll take to boost your future career.

Even if it's for the sole purpose of becoming a better person. Learning a foreign language will open your mind. It's easiest to pick up these skills when you're young, but it's never too late to learn. If you've ever been passionate about it, now is the time to take the plunge. You don't need to be in a classroom anymore to be taught effectively. The tools are available, you just have to know how to integrate it into your day-to-day life. If you're passionate enough about it, you'll know how to make it work.

Where's A Career Fairy When You Need One?

When Baby Boomers say to me, "Those kids today, they can be anything they want to be and yet none of them seem committed to being a professional," I secretly cringe, bite my tongue, and then choose my words carefully. I actually think the opportunity to be anything we want to be is, as the saying goes: a blessing and a curse. Yes, the younger generations have more opportunities than ever before, but, with that comes the added pressure to choose wisely, as well as a sense of obligation to explore lots of options. Picking a career today is like going to a super-sized grocery store and standing at the front with your hands tied behind your back, then being told to select just one food without reading the label, fully knowing you will be expected to eat it five days a week for at least the next year of your life. To me, it's no wonder why 'career,' no matter how you spell it, is an ugly, four-letter word to recent college grads.

The bad news is there's no such thing as a 'Career Fairy.' As much as we want to believe that eventually the perfect job will come along and lead us to the ideal career path – it doesn't. Yet, I also know there is a way to start narrow down the unlimited number of career choices, and it begins by identifying our Unique Gifts.

What's a Unique Gift? It is a skill a person possesses that is innate within them. It's something we are so adept at doing that others seek us out and ask for our help. Everyone has a Unique Gift. In fact, I find most of the people have several of them. The key is to identify your own Unique Gifts and then choose a career path that will allow you to leverage them on a daily basis. Sounds easy, right? There's a catch…

Most people have a very difficult time identifying their Unique Gifts. Why? Because they come so naturally to us, they don't feel special. We hear the term "unique" and assume that we must be good at something that is rare or different. Not true. The reality is that our Unique Gifts will be possessed by others as well. Yet, when we use them, we are so good at them, we naturally excel. We draw others in to us. We get respect. We get results.

So, how can we identify our Unique Gifts? We can start by answering several questions, soliciting the thoughts of their friends and family so that they can get help seeing what they can't always see in themselves. The questions are as follows:

1) What do friends and family members come to you for advice for most often and why?
2) What three personal accomplishments are you most proud of and why?
3) What are the three things you are most knowledgeable about and why?

The answers to these question will provide some interesting insight into your Unique Gifts. Look for patterns. And from there, start to research careers that would let you leverage your Unique Gifts. There is no simple way to finding a career you love. The best we can do is to continue to assess ourselves and become more aware of our professional strengths. This much I know: a job that lets you do what you do best, is a job that you'll enjoy most in the long run. Just ask Michael Jordan…

J.T. O'Donnell is a career consultant who specializes in helping new professionals find greater satisfaction on-the-job. She provides free career information and resources just for Millennial at http://www.jtodonnell.com/spark/spark_land.html.