Leaders Should Master The Art Of Negotiation...Take A Negotiation Class For Free

Miguel Villagran/Getty

Miguel Villagran/Getty

 

Successful Negotiation: Essential Strategies and Skills — University of Michigan

Ross School of Business professor George Siedel has taught negotiation classes around the world and says his research-based class is useful whether you're trying to secure a million-dollar investment in your business or to lower the cost of your cable bill.

Next session: Always available

Find it here >>

http://www.businessinsider.com/most-popular-coursera-courses-of-2015-2015-12

 

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What Emotional Intelligence Looks Like In Action

This image is a screen shot from my visit to LinkedIn. Dwight Drinkard is one of my LinkedIn connections. Last week he posted this picture.  I liked the words so I shared the picture with my entire LinkedIn network. As you can see, 105 people have appreciated this photo and 6 people have commented.  

I covered up one of the names because I don't want to discourage people from sharing constructive comments.  Even thought the person who commented does not agree with the Sandra Bullock quote, he shared his thoughts without being ugly.

The bottom comment is over the top.  I don't know Sandra Bullock personally.  Perhaps the person who wrote the ugly comment does.  I don't know anything about her marriage choices.  Even if I did, I am in no position to judge Ms. Bullocks choices.  Apparently the person who made the rude comment sees things a different way.  This is an Emotional Intelligence issue.

“Emotional intelligence is the “something” in each of us that is a bit intangible. It affects how we manage behavior, navigate social complexities, and make personal decisions that achieve positive results. Emotional intelligence is made up of four core skills that pair up under two primary competencies: personal competence and social competence.” Travis Bradberry

This is an example of poor emotional intelligence on the part of the person who wrote the last comment.  He has a right to have an opinion but it is an Emotional Intelligence skill called Impulse Control that he appears to not have under control.

So, apparently I have no wisdom because I agree with something that Sandra Bullock might have said.  Even if she didn't say what is in the picture and someone else did, I still appreciate what is written.  

I hope this example enables you to see what poor Emotional Intelligence looks like in action and how the last comment was deeply insulting to me.  The person who commented by the way is a 3rd level connection to me and he does not know me.  

The good news is that for someone who is humble, teachable, coachable and in search of positive change, Emotional Intelligence can be coached and changed for the better. I am certified and trained by Multi-Health Systems to leverage their EQi-2.0 Emotional Intelligence assessment.  It is a powerful tool that gives me an instant snapshot of where my client's Emotional Intelligence lies based on 15 skill measurements.

Jeff Snyder Coaching

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Stop The Insanity

Stop Sign Jeff.jpg

"I have a two page resume and just had it professionally written.  It has been 11 months and only two interviews with no luck.  I have submitted literally hundreds of on-line applications with not one hit."

 

Einstein

Stop What You Might Ask?

Stop hiring "Professional Resume Writers" just because they label themselves that way.  

Look for this:

  • Results: Not how much money the resume writer has made selling their services but how much success the resume writer's clients have had in the marketplace. This is the way to measure a resume writing service's value.

  • Methodology: Is the resume writer delivering 1980s or 1990s resumes because that's all they know?  Stop hiring these people if they haven't gone to the business recently to find out what the business wants in a resume. Times have changed.  Therefore, the methodology behind creating a resume should have changed too.

  • The Clock Is On:  If your resume can't be reviewed successfully in 10-15 seconds by a decision maker, your participation in the game could very well be over.

  • Visual Scan: If your resume can't be visually scanned from top-to-bottom in a matter of seconds; game over.  Resume reviewers are extremely busy and data-overwhelmed people.  They are much more likely to visually scan your resume upon first glance than to read your resume.  If your resume does not scan well, it likely not be read at all.

  • Applicant Tracking Systems:  If a resume writer does not have or has never seen the inner-workings of an Applicant Tracking System, run away.  Your resume will be stopped at the gate if it does not play nicely with an Applicant Tracking System.

  • Pretty Resumes: Pretty resumes are not necessarily effective resumes.  As a resume reviewer, I'd rather see a text resume that clearly demonstrates Accomplishments, Contributions and Value than to see a pretty PDF formatted resume that is loaded with fancy fonts, boxes and symbols that don't play nicely with my Applicant Tracking System.  Don't be fooled by pretty.

  • Audience: If the resume writer does not intimately understand your professional audience, run away.  Your resume is about you but it is for someone else 100% of the time.  Your resume must be written for it's audience to understand with ease.

  • Interpretation: The more technical your skill set is, the more likely it is that you have built a resume that requires the audience to interpret.  Stop it!  The burden of interpretation should rest on your shoulders.  Your audience should be positioned to enjoy the journey of getting to know you without having a dictionary handy.

  • Mobile Friendly: Hiring authorities often travel.  If your resume does not display clearly on a mobile device; game over.  Your resume might be reviewed by a hiring authority while they are sitting at the airport when they review your resume.

  • Clean, Clear and Logical: Your resume should be built to match up with the order in which a hiring decision maker is looking for information. In order to understand this, a resume writer either had to be a hiring decision maker or they have to have worked with decision makers over an extended period of time to understand their thought process when they review resumes.

  • Resume and LinkedIn: Is the resume writer telling you about the importance of aligning your resume's message with the message you're sharing on your LinkedIn profile. If they're not, they should be. You are being visited on LinkedIn whether you know it or not. Make your visitor's first impression count.

  • Results (2): Opinions are great.  Everyone has an opinion.  Look for a resume writer who delivers results that matter to you. Be sure your resume writer's approach to writing resumes is built on prior results and not just an opinion.  Make sure the resume writer you hire tells you what you need to know and not just what you want to hear.

Happy Competing!

Jeff Snyder Coaching

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Ineffective Resumes Stall Job Searches

Bad Resume Format

The bottom resume format is one that I recently suggested was not good for the 21st century. For that matter, it wasn't good in the last century either.

I was asked if the bottom example was the only format that is ineffective.  The person who asked this question paid for "professional" resume assistance before they came to me and he/she has not been getting desired results in their job search.

The top example is not the resume of the person who asked this question.  This resume sample is one that I found on a professional resume writing website posted as a sample of the writer's work.  

This format was good in the 1980s and 1990s.  Times have changed. We're in a different century now and the rules of the game have changed.  

While this format is nice looking, it is very ineffective for many reasons.  I chose this example because I see resumes like this come to my own Inbox every day.

This is a tidbit of my resume writing advice.

You have 10-15 seconds to communicate:

  • Who you are
  • Where you are
  • How someone can communicate with you
  • What you’re great at
  • How you’re educated
  • How you’re credentialed
  • What you do today

Ideally this is accomplished on the first ½ to 2/3 of page 1 of your resume.  This is the first 2/3 of a resume that came to me yesterday. If you don’t know how to do this yourself, get help.

Bad Resume Format

Resume writing is a complex topic.  This is especially true if you are a technology professional. Your resume needs to be a blend of Technical Writing, Business Writing and Creative Writing.  

Too much of any particular ingredient and your resume will likely be ineffective.  If you choose to work with a resume writer or a resume coach, determine if this person's clients have achieved desired results lately.  

Jeff Snyder Coaching

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This Is Not a 21st Century Resume

Bad Resume

A 21st Century Resume must be human friendly, applicant tracking system friendly and mobile friendly.

This resume came to me yesterday. I’ve done my best to leave some of the text showing while sanitizing what I’m sharing.  My intention here is to show information security professionals why the business has trouble taking you seriously sometimes.

I approached the owner of this resume to determine if he had a teachable and coachable mindset.  He did not.  He only wanted to know if I could place him.  The answer is a resounding NO.

If what I’m sharing doesn’t apply to you, don’t take offense.  If you present yourself like this, please do something about it.

You have 10-15 seconds to communicate:

  • Who you are
  • Where you are
  • How someone can communicate with you
  • What you’re great at
  • How you’re educated
  • How you’re credentialed
  • What you do today

Ideally this is accomplished on the first ½ to 2/3 of page 1 of your resume.  This is the first 2/3 of a resume that came to me yesterday. If you don’t know how to do this yourself, get help.

Jeff Snyder Coaching

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The Value of Learning, Embracing and Leveraging Your Unique Personal Strengths

Futuristic

 

My top strength as defined by the Clifton StrengthsFinder is called Futuristic. 

“People exceptionally talented in the Futuristic theme are inspired by the future and what could be.  They energize others with their visions of the future”

Traits of Futuristic People

People who have this strength can see down the road. They could be accurately referred to as a Visionary.  They are able to preview, predict and forecast.

If you have this strength, may I suggest that it is super-important that you find out what you have?

Example of My Futuristic in Action

As a Futuristic person, I have always been an early adopter.  On LinkedIn for example, I didn’t wait until everyone around me created an account.  I created my LinkedIn account in 2004 and I’m now hovering around 30,000 direct connections and I've done a significant amount of business because of LinkedIn.  That’s an example of what a Futuristic person does in action.

My Latest Futuristic Project

Recently, I acquired a newly released software product that enables me to build mobile apps.  Over the weekend, I build my first Android Mobile App called Jeff Snyder Coaching.  It sits in the Google Play store.  I’ll build the IOS version of this App this weekend.

Futuristic Excitement!

Being the Futuristic person that I am, I got excited about my new creation; so excited in fact that I built a sample mobile app for a local Realtor friend. I could see down the road in the sense that I could see the competitive advantages a mobile app could bring to my friend’s real estate agency.  I sent the sample app to my friend last night and received this message this morning.

“I received your email on the app. I would really need to think about that and now is a bad time since I'm really turning off for the month of December as much as possible. I did ask my real estate friend in the springs what she thought.”

Long story short, my friend didn’t get it and my friend’s friend didn’t get it either. My first reaction was my old reaction.  The reaction I would have had in the past before I understood my Futuristic gift.  I suppressed my first reaction and turned on my reality testing to come up with a healthier reaction.

People Don't Think Alike

My reality is that I can see down the road and as a marketing educated and marketing minded person, I can see advantages for my real estate friend.  Her reality on the other hand does not include my Futuristic abilities.  Rather than asking me how a mobile app could benefit her business, she turned to a friend who didn’t have my Futuristic strength either. 

There are several lessons here:

  1. Since I know my strengths, I was quickly able to recognize what had gone wrong in this situation and I have already changed my strategy because of what I’ve recognized.
  2. I’ve know this for a while but today’s experience made it crystal clear that as human beings, we do not all think the same way.  Where I see competitive advantage, my friend sees her list of Christmas activities.  Neither one of us is wrong.  We simply aren’t seeing the same things.
  3. If you have the Futuristic strength near the top of your strengths list, you really should learn what it means.  If you don't, you'll spend your entire life living in the future when those around you are living in either the present or the past.  In other words, your audience will seldom get you.
  4. When you learn, embrace and discover how to leverage your personal strengths (yours are different than mine), you can make much more clear and powerful decisions.

Jeff Snyder Coaching

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She's a Leader Today and She's a Leader for the Future

Leadership
  • She is on a technology leadership path.

  • She’s highly intelligent, very articulate and possesses outstanding overall communication skills.

  • She is confident yet humble.  She inspires trust.

  • She has a built-in inclination to break through paralysis of analysis.

  • She is naturally gifted to facilitate growth and performance.

  • It is in her DNA to want to help others.

  • She has a gift for learning.  She is an endless resource of information and solutions.

  • She effortlessly understands the unique qualities of people.

  • She attracts talent and then knows how to put the right people in the right places.

  • She is outstanding at assembling teams and maximizing the output of the teams she builds.

  • She builds close, meaningful and authentic relationships.

  • Working for her is a pleasure because she understands people, the uniqueness of people, how to build the right teams and how to keep everyone on her team engaged.

  • She’s exists today and she's the technology leader of the future.

Jeff Snyder Coaching

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Reality Testing, a Really Important Emotional Intelligence Skill

Tire.jpg

Our Reality testing skill determines how clearly we discern what is actually happening in the world around us. 

“Reality testing involves ‘tuning in’ to the immediate situation…it is the capacity to see things objectively, the way they are, rather than the way we wish or fear them to be.”

Black Friday

While others were shopping for presents last Friday, I took advantage of a Black Friday sale to acquire new Black Tires for one of my vehicles.  I didn’t make this acquisition with joy.  In fact, my mood was just the opposite.

Facts

My vehicle has 95,000 miles.  This set of tires is my 4th set of tires.  Here’s a little help with the math.  The factory tires lasted approximately 35,000 miles.  The expensive Goodyear Fortera tires I purchased with a 70,000 mile warranty lasted approximately 25,000 miles.  The Hancook tires I purchased with a 60,000 mile warranty lasted approximately 34,000 miles. 

My Reality

Do you see where I’m going with this warranty versus actual lifespan issue?  My view of reality in this situation was that the company I have been purchasing tires from was selling me junk. In fact, this seemed like a pretty well-thought-out scam to me. 

The Intelligent Conversation...New Facts

Get a tire buyer hooked on their first purchase and they have to come back to you every time their tires wear out in order to cash in on the warranty in order to buy new tires. I shared a calm discussion with the sales person at the tire dealer.  He recognized that I live in the mountains just as he does. The roads we drive on are frequently curvy roads.  He explained how curvy roads wear tires quickly on a heavy vehicle like a truck or an SUV. 

He went further to explain that if I lived in Colorado Springs and drove on the generally straight I/25 interstate, I would get longer life out of my tires.  He went a step further to explain that if I lived in a place like Arizona, the roads are generally smoother than the roads we have in Colorado based on weather conditions.  In Arizona, my tires would last much longer. This all made sense. Nobody had ever shared these facts with me before.

New Information...New Reality

With this new information in my mind, I was able to shift my view of reality.  Now, I assume that regardless of what the warranty from the manufacturer states, my tires will likely last in the range of 30,000 to 35,000 miles.  While I’m not happy about this, it is the true reality. I can now budget more effectively in order to buy tires sooner than later and I'll no longer expect for my tires to last anywhere near as long as the warranty suggests they'll last.

I hope this real-life example helps you to better understand reality testing.  If your reality testing is not accurate, your thoughts, emotions and decisions will likely not be accurate either. 

That’s why this particular emotional intelligence skill is so important. It impacts every other emotional intelligence skill. The good news is that this emotional intelligence skill and 14 other emotional intelligence skills that are part of the EQi-2.0 assessment I work with can all be improved through coaching and work on the part of the person who is being coached. 

Jeff Snyder Coaching

 

 

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I Would be Honored to Be Your Personal Coach

Success

I Am Unique and Special

I am something and I have value.  Therefore my time, energy, expertise, training and entrepreneurial risk taking is worth something.  I have references and references and more references from people who have achieved results with my help as their coach.

You Are Unique and Special…capable of producing Greatness

You are somebody.  You are unique and special.  You were created to become Great at something.  I can show you what that means and how to achieve Greatness.  

You should invest in yourself from time-to-time and not expect employers to take you to the next level.  Assign yourself value and live up to the assignment you gave yourself with proper care and feeding.

Famous People Have Spoken

Tony Robbins suggests that it takes “Massive Action” to create change.

One of my mentors, Dr. Marshall Goldsmith suggests that achieving change in human behavior is one of the most difficult things for a human being to do.

What do You Need to Accomplish or Change?

Change is difficult.  It is tough to face and even harder to create.  You didn’t get to where you are overnight and you won’t get out of that situation overnight. If you're stuck, you didn't get stuck yesterday.  

I have coaching clients who have sucked up their egos, eaten a slice of humble pie and taken the dive.  They put their trust in me.  They wanted to change, they wanted to achieve and they wanted to make their future better than their past.  

I Charge Fees

I charge fees for my services because they’re backed by experience, education, training, certification and lots of entrepreneurial risk that you probably haven’t acquired or taken.  I’m not here to out-do you. I’ll meet you in the middle and I'll give you the best of everything I have to give.

Invest In Yourself

You should invest in yourself when you need help because you are unique, one of a kind, worth a lot more than you probably think you are and you won’t get to where you want to go without some work and investment.

Thank you for reading.

Regards,

Jeff Snyder

Jeff Snyder Coaching, 719.686.8810

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Jeff Snyder's Resume Writing Services…Coaching Security towards a Profession

Jeff Snyder

The Opinion

I’ll make this quick but I seriously want to make a point.  I just ran into a conflict with a CISO who suggested that my prices were too high.  While he’s entitled to his opinion, so am I.  

I think the CISO’s thought process is small and he isn’t thinking like a business executive. 

CISOs should walk, talk and act like business executives.

I won’t do anything to identify this person but I have to guess that he is making 6 figures.

It Started In 2008

In 2008, I created resume writing services at $599.00.  If you do homework, you’ll find that there are many services out there above $599.00 and they’re not worth a fraction of my services.  I have results to prove my statement and loads of references to back up my statement.

The $259.00 Solution

Two years ago, I figured out a way to adjust my resume writing service so it could be delivered at a lower price point of $259.00.  This service is priced to serve more people and it has been extremely successful all around the globe.

Maybe you don’t need this service right now.  Maybe you’ll never need this service. I respect that.

If you ever do look for a resume writing coach, do yourself a favor and don’t be penny wise and pound foolish when you make your decision.  I’ve helped many people who have hired “professional resume writers” to write their resumes but they didn’t get results.  After they’ve worked with me, they’ve gotten results.  

if you ever hire me, you're making an in yourself.  I take that seriously.  I deliver results.

What to Look For in a Resume Coach

  • A coach who has experience in your field of work and doesn’t try to make you adapt to only what they understand
  • A coach who has done homework with your customer to determine what your customer wants to see on a resume
  • A coach who has a proprietary methodology built from the ground up based on what the customer asked for
  • A coach who delivers results and has references
  • A coach who will give your money back if you are not satisfied
  • A coach who isn’t stuck in their 1900s way of thinking
  • A coach who is always looking for ways to improve their service for the good of their clients
  • A coach who is gifted to coach and has a track record of results

 

This kind of coach by the way should be charging far more than $259.00 or eve $599.00.  The coach who matches the description above is trying to serve as many people possible to push the security skill set to a point where it is considered a security profession.

 

Jeff Snyder Coaching, 719.686.8810

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Can You Explain What I’ll Get from Your 1 Hour Resume Coaching Service?

This question recently came to me from someone who was consider hiring a coach to help them with their resume.

Can You Explain What I’ll Get from Your 1 Hour Resume Coaching Service?

Yes I can.  I have been assisting all kinds of people with resumes since 1990 when I started in the recruiting business.  In 2008, after seeing tens of thousands of resumes for 18 years, I decided to turn what I had been doing on a pro-bono basis into part of my business.

When Writing Isn't Your Gift

I started out with a service that I still occasionally deliver.  That service is what I call my Full Resume Writing Service found on JeffSnyderCoaching.com.  This service is for a client who comes to me and tells me that writing just isn’t their gift.  In this case, I teach my client how to do what they need to do and I also stick with this client until their resume is complete.  I become their editor.

The Wall Street "C" Level Executive

A few years ago, a “C” level executive on Wall Street came to me and told me that he was totally comfortable with his writing skills. He had an English undergraduate degree.  He told me that he had been following my articles and blogs for quite a while and that he was convinced that I was sitting on some kind of “secret sauce” as he called it. 

The "Secret Sauce"

He asked me if he could pay me for an hour of my time in exchange for me exposing him to my “secret sauce”.  I agreed to do this and at the end of the 1 hour phone call, my client was completely satisfied and I was energized.  This experience prompted me to turn this 1 hour phone call into what I now refer to as my 1 Hour Resume Coaching service.

1 Hour Resume Coaching

This one hour call is built around a sample resume from my portfolio or 20 or so sample resumes.  I use the sample resume in order to teach my client how to build their resume following the same game-changing methodology that was used to build the sample resume.

When I say game changing, I’m suggesting that my resume clients all around the globe have opened interview doors with their new resumes where in many cases, their old resume wasn’t leading them to desired result.

When I’m working with a client who is teachable and coachable, in one hour, I have figured out how to transfer over 25 years of my experience combined with the research I did in 2008 to build my proprietary resume writing methodology to my client’s mind.  This means that after 1 hour, my client can build their new resume based on the methodology that has been producing results around the globe since 2008.

The Methodology

While this methodology of mine was originally built for technology professionals, I have recently coached people across a half dozen skill domains and they’ve all had success when applying my methodology to their resume. My methodology came together from information I obtained from an audience of people who commonly make decisions based on resumes. Then I mixed in my own experience and the result was a resume building approach that is based entirely on the audience of people who will receive one of my client’s resumes.

My proprietary resume writing methodology is built on the following foundational ideas:

  • A resume should be built to play nicely with Applicant Tracking Systems (ATS)
  • It should be possible to visually scan a resume in 10-15 seconds in order to process a decision
  • A resume should strategically communicate what the resume owner is great at during the 10-15 second visual scan
  • A resume should be built in bite sized pieces to accommodate the way human beings have been conditioned to receive information in the 21st century
  • A resume must be clean, clear and logically written based on the way resume reviewers logically look for information in order to process a decision.
  • A resume should communicate Accomplishments, Contributions and the Value that matters to the business
  • A resume should be mobile friendly
  • A resume should never require someone in the resume’s audience to have to interpret what they see in the resume

Conclusion

Finally, most resumes require a mix of business writing, technical writing and a little bit of strategically leveraged creative writing.  Writing in this manner is a gift that not everybody possesses. It is for these reasons that I created my 1 Hour Resume Coaching service. 

There is nothing I enjoy more than when I get to help my clients win! This service represents one of the many ways in which I get to help my clients to win.

Jeff Snyder Coaching, 719.686.8810

 

 

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Why You Should Hire Jeff Snyder for Coaching

Coaching

“While you might hire a personal trainer for strengths coaching in the gym, you need to look no further than Jeff Snyder if you need a coach that can enlighten and stretch your mind.  I would go so far as to say that Jeff’s approach to Strengths Coaching and Emotional Intelligence Coaching makes him a trainer for the mind. 

He finds the right balance between listening to my needs and ideas and sharing what’s on his mind.  He has helped me with my “Personal Branding” as he calls it.  He taught me how to build a resume that has not only resulted in me getting interviews but the process that Jeff walked me through also built my personal confidence.  He then showed me how to build my LinkedIn profile so recruiters just like him can now more easily find me among the 400,000 people who are now part of the LinkedIn network.

In addition to Jeff’s formal training and certification to coach, his unique personal strengths, his life experience, his business experience, sports experience, entrepreneurial risk-taking experience and overcoming big-time adversity experience produces what seems like a never-ending well of ideas and perspectives that has helped me more than I can put into words.  If you need help to move your career forward or if you need help to determine whether or not to start your own business, call Jeff and let him coach you.”   Operations Executive

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