How To Stand Out in a Group of Extroverts

by Kelsey Manning

 

When surrounded with colleagues who are outgoing, liberal with sharing ideas and just constantly chattering, allowing yourself to succumb to introverted tendencies is a dangerous path. Certainly you don’t want to risk having your value to the team questioned, or even just letting your great ideas go unheard. On the other hand, constantly trying to speak up in such a group is flat out exhausting, especially if you’re introverted by nature. Fortunately, there are some key strategies you can help you assert your value without feeling like you have to blurt something out at the first quiet moment.

Resist the “Extrovert Fest”

Dennis O’Neill, an Executive Coach with a PhD in Adult Education as well as a Master’s in Organizational Psychology, talks about something he calls the “extrovert fest.” “When a group of extroverts become excited about something, be it the presence of a senior executive, a stimulating or controversial group discussion, a brainstorming session, or anything else,” O’Neill says, “they can get competitive, and frankly, sometimes it is not very pretty.”

Like I said before, the temptation is to rush to assert yourself at every possible opportunity. Instead, O’Neill advises, “Do not get swept up with the excitement of the moment by trying to outdo every one of them at the game. If you compete with them, you become lost in the fray as just one of them.”

Become a Moderator
Of course, this is no easy feat, but with practice and patience, it is possible. “Develop the maturity to credit others for their ideas or contributions,” O’Neill says. “Build on what you think is viable from what has been said and provide a summary or propose an idea that incorporates the ideas of the other extroverts–without competing directly with them.” Support each member without being threatening, bringing all the group’s thoughts together in a positive way.

Career Counselor Lynn Berger also says that the key to the extrovert is that he or she must be heard, so by listening carefully, validating what was valuable about the comment, and expanding upon it, you can contribute without trying to overpower anyone.

“You can distinguish yourself at a higher order, as a leader,” O’Neill says, “by helping all of them to come up with the best solution or idea. You selflessly label it as ‘the group’s idea’ and help them all to ‘feel the win.’” Ultimately, resisting those chaotic brainstorming sessions (or “extrovert fests”) in favor of a supportive, productive summary will work both in your favor and your team’s.

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3 Skills Every Professional Should Have

by Rachel Maleady, LevoLeague.com

Job searching, for recent and older grads, is becoming increasingly competitive as time goes on. In addition to having a great resume, relevant experience and a good attitude, you also need to have your own unique skills. Whether you’re a Photoshop whiz or have years of customer service experience, these specialty skills can help set you apart from all the other applicants. Here are three important skills that I feel every professional should have.

 

Public speaking

Although it’s a top fears among the population, public speaking is crucial in most jobs. Whether it’s speaking to a large audience as a public relations representative or just speaking to fellow employees as a Human Resources generalist, being able to effectively communicate is key. At my college, all communications and business students were required to take a basic public speaking class during their freshman year. I thought this should have even been taken up a notch- I believed that all students, regardless of their major of study, should take this course. Arguably, in any career there will be a time when public speaking will come in handy. It not only helps you project information to a large audience, but helps your one-on-one conversations and interactions with fellow employees, bosses, clients and customers.

 

Technology

I firmly believe that having some sort of technological skill will help set you apart from the rest. For example, having experience in search engine optimization will greatly help you as a writer. Having web or graphic design skills is always a plus, since a client may need you to create something in a pinch, even if it’s out of your comfort zone. Having a personal blog, regardless of your field of study, shows that you not only know how to write and create webpages, but that you can market yourself and plan content accordingly. So if you have some free time, enroll in a HTML class or ask your boyfriend to explain Excel to you- it will help in the long run.

 

Analytics

Being good with numbers in general will always help you in your future jobs. Being able to analyze data and make conclusions from that data will benefit your clients and company- and maybe even impress your boss. Instead of writing boring statements on your resume like “Helped clients get more page views”, you can write things like “Increased campaign’s clicks by 40 percent through blogger outreach program.” The latter looks more professional and impressive, right?

Read the full article online. 

 

7 Tips For Boosting Your EQ (Emotional Intelligence)- from Levo League...

by Meredith Lepore

IQ gets all the fame. It has Albert Einstein as a poster child and it just sounds so, well, smart. But your EQ, your emotional intelligence, is so important as well but sometimes we don’t realize it. Your Emotional Intelligence accounts for 58 percent of performance in all types of jobs! Also studies have found that 90 percent of high performers are also high in Emotional Intelligence and that every point increase in EI increases annual salary by $1,300 on average.

Plus, a high IQ is less important when it comes to leadership skills. That is where your EQ really comes into play. EQ addresses how we perceive and understand our own emotions and the emotions of others. And then we get into Behavior Emotional Intelligence (BEQ) which is the evolution of that awareness; it is our ability to use EQ to manage personal behavior and relationships.

We talked with Casey Mulqueen, Ph.D., Director of Research & Product Development for  The TRACOM Group, one of the nation’s top leadership development companies. They have developed a proven BEQ training program used by many Fortune 100 and 500 companies from all around the world. Mulqueen wrote an entire white paper on the subject called, “ “Behavioral EQ: Putting Emotional Intelligence to Work.” Here are a few of her best tips so you can get your EQ in check.

1. Control your behavior by understanding your emotions.
Learn and understand your emotional triggers — the things that result in losing behavioral control.

This is invaluable for understanding the situations and emotions that you experience just prior to losing control of your behavior. Understanding emotions is important for learning how to manage your behavior.

2. Mentally rehearse common situations that set off your emotional triggers.
Research shows that when you mentally rehearse scenarios, you are activating the same neural circuitry that is activated when you are actually in the scenario. Instead of responding the way you typically have in the past, imagine yourself acting in a more productive way. Develop a mental “movie” of yourself and clearly imagine yourself behaving in the ways you want. This will help prepare you for when these situations actually occur. You will have a script to follow.

3. Force your brain into action by solving a problem.

Actively distracting yourself is an effective way to maintain self-control. If you are suddenly in a situation where you are feeling anger or frustration, for instance, shift your focus from the other person or situation to a mental problem. Make the problem challenging. For example, work out the solution to 15 x 18. This will force your brain to focus on the math problem and away from the stressful situation. The old adage that you should count to ten is not effective. The reason is that it is too easy and, therefore, does not actively engage the brain. Distracting yourself with a difficult problem is an effective strategy for avoiding an emotional reaction. It is not important to solve the problem correctly.

The point is to engage the brain region that solves problems, thereby preventing the emotional center of your brain from flooding the bloodstream with adrenalin and other stress hormones that cause strong emotional reactions.

4. Engage in healthy escapism.

If it is too hard to find a mental problem to solve, another form of distraction is to actively let your attention shift to a pleasant memory. You can sing a song in your mind, think of your favorite place or activity, a funny TV show, whatever works best for you. Similar to solving a problem, this will engage your mind and prevent the amygdala from taking control and causing a strong emotional reaction.

Think of this as a healthy form of mental escapism.

Read the full article online! 

How to Develop an Effective Team- from Levo League

by Alexandra Moncure

What industry has a $100 billion dollar annual spend and is controlled by 2.3 million women? Weddings. Kellee Khalil is thefounder and CEO of Lover.ly, the world’s first visual search and commerce engine revolutionizing the weddings industry. Lover.ly allows brides and grooms to search, save, shop, and share all things wedding in one place through beautiful, curated images from targeted vendors and partnerships.

Khalil began her career in finance before joining her sister’s wedding industry focused public relations agency. While working in the bridal industry and simultaneously helping her sister plan her wedding in 2010, Khalil experienced first hand the difficulty of making a wedding come to life.

On the hunt for the perfect wedding elements—from dresses, shoes and accessories to event decor and wedding vendors—she was also overwhelmed by the millions of pages of wedding content on Google. It was then that Khalil decided to create an all-in-one resource to help brides and grooms discover, search, shop, and share wedding ideas and products in a simple, streamlined, fun and tech-savvy way.

However in order to accomplish this, Khalil needed to build a team that understood her vision and possessed the skills she lacked from a technology perspective to make the vision a reality. She understood that it was important that she not only hire people who possessed the skills she needed, but would also  be a good fit for the company culture she was hoping to build. When building her team, she focused on hiring people who had tremendous amounts of passion, creativity, and interest in the problems that they’re working to solve.

“I think especially in early stage companies, the culture is derived from the founders and the CEO,” Khalil said. “I tend to surround myself with people with skill sets that are far beyond mine. One of my core strengths I think is that I’m good at finding people who are better at things than I am and bringing them around me.”


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Why Don’t People Want to Work for Women?

by Meredith Lepore

Bad news ladies. When asked by a Gallup poll if they prefer a female or male boss,  just over half of Americans say they don’t have a preference, but those who do strongly lean towards men. Forty percent of women and 29 percent of men say they prefer a male boss over a female one. Unsurprisingly, conservative Republicans also prefer men to be in charge while democrats were more split down the middle. Why don’t people want to work for women?

Even though more women are advancing into managerial and executive positions, the world does still not see them as capable and likeable as men. Guardian writer Jill Fillpovic smartly pointed out that when people don’t like their male boss, they write it off as that individual failed. When people don’t like their female boss, the entire gender is criticized and put down.

As Sheryl Sandberg reminded us in Lean In, ambition has a positive connotation for men and a negative one for women. Ambition is practically synonymous with the “b word” when it comes to women, and Sandberg wants to change that. Women, especially those in authoritative positions, can often simply not win in the workplace.

Just look at the portrayal of female bosses in film and television. Miranda Priestly in The Devil Wears Prada, Margaret Tate in The Proposal, Katherine Parker in Working Girl, etc., These women struggle with their powerful roles and the only way to deal with it is to be a deathly terrifying ice queen (who dresses great.)

“It’s a general cultural phenomenon, the preference for men leaders and bosses,” Alice Eagly, Ph.D., a social psychology professor at Northwestern University, told Forbes in 2010. She supposes that “leaders are thought to be people who are dominant and competitive and… confident. Those kinds of qualities are ascribed to men far more than women. Women are ascribed to be nice. We are, above all, nice.”
 
Read the full article and others from Levo League online.