The Career Success Doctor, Author at The Career Success Doctor

How To Make A Good Impression In Less Than 7 Seconds

We have less than 10 seconds to make a good impression when we meet someone for the first time. Some say 7 seconds, some say less than 5. Anyway, whichever way you count it, it is SHORT! There are plenty of articles about how to do this non-verbally, using body language, but you can also do it by using the quality of your voice: not just your words, but the way you speak.

In this short video, I demonstrate exactly how you can quickly build rapport – a sense of liking or trust or relationship – very quickly by matching your volume, speed and pitch with that of your interviewer, important business contact, or whoever it is you need to make a good impression on.

If you are keen to make a good impression quickly, then practice the three tips shown in this video. They could help you win friends and influence people. They could even help you win the job of your dreams.

If you have any comments or questions, do leave them in the box below. I’d love to know what you think.

The Importance Of Focus

Written by The Career Success Doctor

Us girls are biologically built for multi-tasking, we KNOW this, but it’s easy to get so tied up in multi-tasking that we lose focus. In this short video I share a recent experience that reminded me just how important focus is – whether you’re in the kitchen or involved in a high-powered project. Enjoy!

How To Use Your Voice For Maximum Impact

Written by The Career Success Doctor

I’ve just published a new video called How To Use Your Voice For Maximum Impact.

If you go online you’ll see plenty about the importance of body language when preparing for interview, doing a presentation or attending an important meeting, You’ll see a lot less about voice, yet our voices convey all manner of unconscious messages about us to the listener.

In this short video, I talk through 3 things that you can use to ensure your voice is making a great impact. And I’d love to know what you think of it. Leave a comment if this resonated (like a good voice) with you.

Happy New Year 2014 From The Career Success Doctor

Written by The Career Success Doctor

Today being 1st January 2014, I wanted to wish you all a very happy New Year 2014. May this year be everything you could wish for.

At this time of year I find it useful to reflect – on what’s happened in the year just gone, and what I want to happen in the year to come. We’re past the solstice, so the days are lengthening, at least in the Northern Hemisphere. While it’s not quite true to say that Spring is around the corner, it’s a great time to feel optimistic.

2013 has been a year of recovery for me. I had a very difficult time with my Mum, who finally died in 2012, and I hand’t realised quite how much it had knocked the stuffing out of me. So I’ve been rebuilding the business, slowly but surely, learning new skills (in particular how to use video more effectively), and developing my first online programme, which I’ll be launching in a couple of weeks, once we’ve got the technology sorted out! I’ve also started doing some business consulting, alongside my coaching. I spent about 10 years as a management consultant, so it’s drawing on old skills – and I am amazed to find they are still every bit as relevant today as they were 15 years ago.

I lost 2 friends – both of them young. In both cases, their death was a shock, but the funerals were real celebrations of 2 very different, but both very special guys, with lots of music. Dave and Ken, we miss you.

And I spent a fabulous 6 weeks in Hawai’i, teaching and attending a Huna seminar (which I do twice a year anyway) and then travelling around the islands, and getting deeply involved in helping out with the Merrie Monarch festival. This festival celebrates Hawai’ian culture through the Hula, and it’s an amazing experience. I helped make leis (adornments) for one of the Hula schools competing in the competition, which is a rare privilege. I helped ‘dress’ an exhibition stand for one of the leading feather lei makers, who makes the most stunning leis out of feathers, and I got to help create and then dress the winning horse team in the Saturday parade. And along the way I met some wonderful people and had such fun.

And now I am preparing to launch the new programme – How To Have A Career That Really Works, set up a Joint Venture with an Australian business partner, and do some more consulting. I’ll be teaching and studying Huna in Hawai’i, and I will be running some Huna workshops in UK. Huna has been a life-saver for me, and I want to share it with anyone who is suffering from depression, or anxiety, or stress, or who just wants to live a more purposeful life.

So I am going to be busy!

I’d love to know what you’ll be up to. Do leave a comment in the comment box below, and I look forward to talking to you in 2014.

So You Think YOUR Boss Is Unsupportive Of Women Managers?

Written by The Career Success Doctor

Like many of us, I’ve had my share of unsupportive bosses, particularly those who are keen to promote a man rather than a woman. I know that in many societies it’s a real struggle to get recognition as a a professional if you happen to be female. And today I discovered just how bad it is for women managers in Japan.

An article in the HBR blog (what a great resource their online version is, by the way) reveals that, along with South Korea, Japan has the lowest rate of women managers in the developed world at around 10%. Note, we’re not talking about Board members here, we’re only looking at managers. By comparison, about 35% of managers in UK are female, which puts us just above the EU average, and fourth behind Latvia, Lithuania and France. Yep, you read that right, France have a higher percentage of female managers than UK.

The other fascinating fact to emerge from this piece is that ‘more women working and more babies’ can help ‘counter an aging workforce and a flaccid economy’. In my opinion that’s a lesson the UK government could take on board, too. For many working women, the poor level of childcare makes it difficult to commit to a career and be a truly effective performer at work. We do it, but it’s despite a limited (and in some areas non-existent) level of childcare.

It’s easy to be complacent that we’re doing so much better than Japan and the majority of EU countries, even the Anglo Saxon ones. Women make up over 50% of the UK population, so why are the numbers so low?

Of course, taking time out to have children accounts for some of the difference, but it certainly doesn’t tell the whole story. In my work I am increasingly meeting intelligent, dynamic women who have left the corporate sector (by which I mean the world of other peoples’ organisations, private, public and not-for-profit sectors, organisations large, medium and small) to set up their own business. Many say they dislike the corporate ethos, that it’s too masculine and doesn’t allow them to express themselves as women. Many are leaving because they are fed up, and feel they can have more work-life balance, time for their kids, do something they love and make a difference by working for themselves.

As a woman running her own business, I applaud this. But how sad that so many of us do it because feel we HAVE to do it, that it’s the only way out, the only way to have a truly fulfilling career and be who we really are, rather than struggling to play the game.

Rant over….here’s the rest of that hbr blog.