Nineteen words that shouldn’t be present in your resume

It’s hard to believe that a few words could irritate someone enough to make them stop reading your resume, but it’s true. Some hiring managers and recruiters admit that they have their own mental lists of words that annoy them. Resume how-to books may recommend that you pack your resume full of as many verbs, adjectives, and adverbs as you can. But if you aren’t careful, you could turn off more prospective employers than you entice. Effective word choice is what really appeals to hiring managers—not action verbs and glittery modifiers. Here’s a rundown of some words that hiring managers say detract from the persuasiveness of resumes they see.

Nineteen words

Seven S Framework of Management

A common adage in the management consulting business is that efficiency and effectiveness are completely different measurements. An organization can be extremely efficient, getting high productivity from their workforce and producing their product or service with very little waste or churn, yet be totally ineffective in meeting their objectives if, for instance, their product or service is not accepted in the marketplace. This difference is often distilled to the statement “efficiency is about doing things right, while effectiveness is about doing the right things.”

The Seven S approach is a framework that focuses on guiding managers to improving, not just our processes, but our entire strategic approach to the business.The Seven S approach is a framework that focuses on guiding managers to improving, not just our processes, but our entire strategic approach to the business.

So what are the Seven S’s, and how do they fit together to help consultants and managers improve business performance? Here’s a brief walk through of the attributes of the Seven Ss.

#1. Strategy: The overriding goal or objective that the enterprise wishes to achieve, and the course of action it intends to take to reach that goal. From the viewpoint of IT, the key question here is often about alignment. Are the activities of the IT staff focused on achieving the strategic goals of the organization? Is there a forward-looking IT plan or road-map that illustrates how the IT function will drive towards to long-term strategic objectives of the firm? Is the CIO involved in strategy formulation or just an implementer? Every IT professional has experienced situations in which a manager or executive becomes enamored of some technical solution, often sold to her by a sales representative as the “end-all fix,” and IT finds itself devoting all its energies to implementing a product that is disconnected from the firm’s strategic goals.

#2. Structure: The manner in which the enterprise is organized, and the relationships between the entities, such as departments, field offices, etc. Is the organization authoritarian, like the military, or decentralized or federated? How do internal processes and human resources work together to achieve the goals? In my consulting experience, I’ve seen many firms that want to migrate to an e-commerce approach to sales, and yet see e-commerce enablement as a project, rather than as a structural problem that needs to be solved. No matter how great the e-commerce engine an organization builds, if it’s internal organization and structure is not modified to adapt to this new channel, it has very little chance of success.

#3. Systems: Not just information systems and infrastructure, but also the processes and the functions that enable the organization to work, such as recruiting, accounting, and procurement. From e-commerce to data warehousing and knowledge management, and all across the array of processes and systems that companies employ to deliver their products and services, the ability to make the right technology decisions, to optimize processes, and to enhance productivity are make-or-break elements of success.

#4. Staff: The human resources that actually accomplish the work, and the recruiting, incentives, and compensation practices that encourage them to achieve. An organization’s ability to attract and retain the best talents and to keep them motivated and productive is key to execution of the enterprises goals. All the strategic innovation in the world cannot compensate for an unmotivated staff or low productivity.

#5. Style: The elusive “corporate culture” is captured here; is the enterprise customer focused and quality driven or focused on maximizing profitability at any cost? Does the enterprise strive to build a cohesive team of its staff, or does the organization view its workforce as a series of interchangeable hands-for-hire?

#6. Skills: The unique competencies that drive competitive advantage. From the “hard” technical skills of designing products and managing projects to the “soft” skills of communication and teamwork, staff capabilities are essential elements of strategic success. This element also addresses organizational skills: As we’ve recently learned in the case of General Motors, the ability of an organization to develop products or services that the marketplace values is the differentiating factor in the market battlefield.

#7. Shared Values: The core beliefs and attitudes that drive the enterprise. Values are not the mission of the company — that should be captured in the firm’s strategy. Values are about behaviors, taking the form of statements like “we’ll never sacrifice customer satisfaction for short term profit” or “we always thank the customer for choosing us.”

Seven S is just a conceptual framework; therefore, it doesn’t tell us how to fix those areas that require development. By applying your experience, reviewing the ideas found in the literature (such as Good to Great and other business classics), enlisting the insights and suggestions of members of the organization, and applying disciplines like Six Sigma where appropriate, you can help firms apply a consistent approach to strategy development and execution and improve their results and competitive position.

9 Strategies to Getting Things Done At Work

Many a times you find it difficult to manage your work. Here are few strategies that will help you manage your work, and help you getting things done.

1.) Start with the hard stuff first.

We often tend to put the difficult tasks as a late entry on our to-do list because we just don’t want to deal with it right now. Moreover, we are attracted to the smaller and easier tasks because it gives us a false impression that we’re doing more.

“Saving the worst for last” can prove to be detrimental in our ability to get things done because we’ve already used up our initial energy on non-critical tasks. You’ll also end up constantly thinking and worrying about that dreaded task ahead, causing stress and distraction throughout the workday. Finishing the hard stuff first will give you an early boost in morale and a sense of real accomplishment earlier in the day.

2.) Write down just five tasks to do today.

Often, we measure our productiveness by the length of our task list. The more items we have on the list, the more impressive we appear to be. On the contrary, trimming down your list provides the benefit of you being able to focus on your current tasks and allowing you to easily manage your timeline on these endeavors. You should measure your efficiency and productivity with the quality of the work you’ve done, factored into the equation. A responsibility that’s rushed and poorly finished (read: “half-assed“) can actually be less efficient in the long run because you might have to commit additional time to fix issues and provide additional support and maintenance. In addition, if you’re not overwhelmed with a myriad of things to do, you won’t risk simply giving up and leaving them for another day.

3.) Take a breather regularly.

Give yourself a few minutes at different points of the day to temporarily “power down” and relax. You can take a brisk walk around your office building or you can spend some time catching up with a colleague – just don’t stray off too much. A simple thing I do when I’m stuck on an issue that’s preventing me from progressing is to take a five-minute break away from my work area. When I come back from my mini-break — more often than not – I’ve already figured out the solution without even thinking about it.

4.) Cut down on non-work activities.

The oldest trick in the book when it comes to getting stuff done is to limit activities that don’t relate to the job at hand, yet it’s something we often don’t think about seriously. If you find that you’re constantly running out of time at work, take a day or two to consciously keep tabs on activities that you indulge in but aren’t pertinent to your daily responsibilities. You might be surprised to find that you’ve been checking your favorite websites a tad bit too much or chatting up your co-workers a little too excessively.

5.) Keep a work journal.

A work journal comes in many forms. It can be a simple steno pad, a Word document, your PDA, and you can even use web services such as HiTask. A work journal serves many purposes towards getting stuff done. First, it allows you to better organize your work which leads to a more effective way of planning out your work schedule and prioritizing tasks.

Second, it catalogs the things you’ve done and the problems you’ve solved so that when you encounter the same situation at a later date, you can just look back on your journal entries, saving you time and effort trying to figure out how you addressed a similar task.

Third, it’ll keep you motivated and focused on your daily tasks; I find that when my journal’s light on content, I step it up a notch and get things rolling. Lastly, it’s a way to show yourself that you’ve done a good job.

6.) Work fewer hours.

Again, when we think of productivity, we think putting more hours into our work day yields higher productivity. Less work hours generally means more time to spend on your personal affairs, which leads to better health and a reduction in stress levels – two major variables that cuts back productivity. Sure, staying late at work is good for appearance-sake (showing the boss your dedication), but if it leads to things not getting done, they’ll eventually catch on to your “I’m working hard” bluff.

Working too much can be a never-ending feedback cycle where: you work long hours, which leads to less personal time…which leads to less sleep and time for your personal activities… which leads to tiredness in the morning and less energy to complete tasks at work… which leads to even more work hours… and you see where I’m going with this. If you’re able to control your workday, try to adjust your schedule so that you’re able to enjoy your life outside of work more fully.

7.) Disconnect yourself momentarily.

The modern worker is faced with an ever-growing method of staying connected to other people. Cell phones, emails, social networking sites like Facebook, and web services like twitter that let’s everyone know what you’re doing right now, allow us unprecedented ability to communicate with everyone around the planet (well, minus those few dead-zones on the poles and some shady coordinates in the Bermuda Triangle). This is good for our social life but can lead to distractions at work. When you’ve got to get things done, disconnect for a moment; set a “Busy” status on your instant-messaging client, stop checking your emails every minute and opt to check it once every one or two hours, you’ll find that disconnecting provides you an uninterrupted period of time where you can really focus on the tasks at hand.

8.) Mix it up.

Monotony is a key factor that leads to a work slump. When you’ve been looking at the same Excel spreadsheet for the past few days or working on the same project for months, the reason that might be holding you back from finally delivering is that you’re stuck in a rut. Volunteer to help a co-worker on his project and step away from yours for a short period of time; it might help you break the monotony and it’s a good way to improve your karma at work.

9.) Keep motivating thoughts in mind.

Figure out what motivates you to excel, finish, and progress. Are you a competitive spirit who doesn’t like to be outdone by others? Do you find satisfaction in impressing others with the speed and quality of your methods? Or maybe you have family and loved ones that depend on you to advance in your career. It doesn’t matter what the reason is — find it — and use it as a constant reminder as to why you’re doing what you’re doing