Quick Team Building Activities for Busy Managers 50 Exercises That Get Results in Just 15 Minutes
August 10, 2009 by Career Ideas · Leave a Comment
Quick Team Building Activities for Busy Managers 50 Exercises That Get Results in Just 15 Minutes
Every group can benefit from team-building exercises. But sometimes it’s not practical to embark on a full-scale training initiative. Now, supervisors, managers, and team leaders have 50 team-building activities to choose from, all of which can be implemented with no special facilities, big expense, or previous training experience. Readers will find engaging exercises for:
* Building new teams and helping teams with new members * Dealing with change and its effects: anger, fear, frustration, and more * Recognizing individual efforts and team accomplishments * Finding creative ways to work together and solve problems * Increasing and improving communication * Leveraging diversity and individual differences to meet team goals * Keeping competition healthy and productive within the team
Instructions and tips for follow-up and variations are included for each activity, and an additional chapter provides valuable advice for working through unexpected difficulties in team-building.
User Ratings and Reviews
5 Stars Inspiration and Magic
a) This book delivers what it advertises: Quick team building activities. There’s a surprising amount of variety and thought behind the book. It’s organized and clear. The goals and methods are obvious.
b) As with everything in life, the success of the activities depends on you. And some luck. And you’re going to have to take some chances.
c) The book is arranged by Need (ingenious, really). Say that your team is a bickering crew of backstabbing narcissists that fail to realize the inherent talents of their teammates. Flip to Chapter X and you’ll have an activity that helps them understand the value of others. It’s like a Jedi mind trick.
d) Stylistically, I can use about 1/3 of the activities in the book today. As teams and groups change, the other 2/3 of the book provides buffer. A few of the activities will never match my style - or yours - but that’s Ok; that’s the way things work. We don’t all like Merlot.
e) Overall, (5) stars for delivering what the title promises (do what you say…), and an equal (5) stars for simple, valuable activities.
f) ps - One that I didn’t see in the book is the Truths and a Lie game (maybe because it’s everywhere on the net). Here it is: Give everyone (3) index cards. Have them write (2) True Statements and (1) False statement about themselves on the cards. Merge and Shuffle, Read each out loud and try to figure out who said what. It’s a fun get-to-know-ya to kick off a project. Most of us don’t really know our coworkers, so it works in all situations.
5 Stars Team building ideas
Great Book….lots of quick and easy ideas to be easily implemented. Arrived VERY quickly and in excellent shape.
4 Stars No props necessary
The best part about this book is that the author stays true to his word and presents ideas that require either no props or a handful of items you’re guaranteed to have on hand - like paper, pens and paperclips. Although the ideas in this book aren’t going to chance your life, they’re genuinely designed to make your life as a manager easier and give you some good ideas. I liked it a lot better than many similar books I’ve read!
5 Stars Quick Team Building Activities
Wonderful book. A lot of clever ideas. This book saves me in a pinch when I have time left over after my office meetings. I can just pull out the book and play a moral game with the staff. The book is an easy read and organized well with ideas.
4 Stars A few good ideas
I used the penny for your thoughts game but unfortunately I gave a penny with a year to someone who had a terrible year (divorced, moved etc). A little uncomfortable but you may want to preface before the exercise that this is not intended to remind individuals of bad times. I had great success with the puzzled game. It was great!
Federal Resume Guidebook Strategies for Writing a Winning Federal Electronic Resume KSAs and Essays 4th Edition
August 8, 2009 by Career Ideas · Leave a Comment
4th Edition of The Federal Resume Guidebook, Strategies for Writing a Winning Federal Electronic Resume, KSA’s and Essays. Almost all federal agencies now require you to use online resume builders to submit your resume. This book shows you how to: Use online resume builders, including USAJOBS, Quick hire, Avue Central and Resumix. Maximize the effectiveness and readability of your online resume. Determine which keywords to use. Write KSA’s, ECQ’s, Essays, and Short Answers. Get the federal job you want. Includes dozens of samples federal resumes in online resume builders
User Ratings and Reviews
5 Stars The Real Deal
I consider myself a professional writer. I’ve written articles and stories for publication, and figured I could swing my own resume. I scoffed at any type of professional help. Writing was just one area of strength in my current government position, but I was ready to move up. And I searched, and applied, for 2 long years. I got 1 interview, no hires, and made the referral list about 5 times in 15 or so applications. A few attractive positions opened, and this time, quite discouraged and frustrated, I wasn’t taking any chances. I couldn’t squander anymore opportunities that were local because I was in no position to uproot and move from state to state for the right vacancy. So I bit the bullet and purchased the Federal Resume Guidebook. I read it in one sitting, and used the tips, tricks, and supplemental information to tweak up the resume I had worked so hard on. In a matter of a couple hours, I thought it was ready for prime time and applied for 3 separate positions, all of which would be a promotion of 4 total GS grades. I made the referral list for all three, and got an interview call within weeks for one of them. I used the book to prepare for my behavioral interview, and nailed it, and start my new job in February. So after lingering as a GS-07 right out of college, I’ll be a 9/11, which is certain 4 big steps in the right direction. I certainly can’t believe the results I encountered by simply applying the book. If I had bought it earlier and overruled my ego, I might be writing this success story much sooner. But I’m so very happy to write it now, and recommend the book to anyone who wants to compete for a govt job, period. The guidebook is worth every penny for federal employees looking for opportunity. Get the book. If you’re not building the best resume possible with the help of this guide, you’re going to be competing against better resumes, and you’re going to be left in the slush pile. This is the best investment you can make in your career.
2 Stars Bureaucrat on Bureaucracy
Life-long bureaucrat Katheryn Troutman has spent her career helping to create this complicated federal hiring mess. Now she’s cashing in her access and influence with the federal government to profit privately with a series of federal career products and services.
Like most government publications, this one is poorly organized, confusing and full of contradictions like:
Page 88 suggests “only” as a powerful word to define the level and scope of your experience and skills.
Page 96 says to avoid superlatives, such as “only”.
In chapter 11, Troutman tells us you cannot begin writing a federal resume until you’ve studied vacancy announcements.
The first ten chapters discuss how to write your resume with only passing mention of vacancy announcements.
Perhaps the information in chapter 11 should be at the front of the book.
Despite Troutman’s praise for “plain language”, this book is mearly Bureaucratese Light. If you like reading tax code, standardized test questions or legal terms and agreements, you’ll love Federal Resume Guidebook. For the rest of us, there’s got to be something better. Her self-congratulatory smiling face on the back cover makes me sick.
4 Stars Worked for me
I am a currently work for the federal government and I can tell you that this guidebook was a tremendous help in navigating the confusing job application process for the feds - from writing effective KSA’s to making important contacts within agencies, this book will give you good advice.
5 Stars The best FED job source yet!
It works. You just need to know how to formulate and elaborate on what you’ve done on jobs. The examples and templates are helpful. The book is easy to navigate. You’ll learn creating your Fed resume and KSAs is like writing a school paper - you have to research and connect your main points. Federal Resume Guidebook Strategies definitely helps you in doing so. I highly recommend it!
2 Stars Over Rated
I purchased this book based on the numerous reviews exclaiming its excellence. As a first note, the photo representation showing a CD that provides actual examples of resumes and KSAs is highly deceiving. There is no CD with this book. On the final page of the book, you will find directions on how to buy this for an additional fee at the authors website. No doubt the author has experience and expertise in the convuluted federal application process. From biographical information that is available it appears that she was a key player in creating it and then she went on to build a business that capitalizes off of the confusion created in the process. The inforation in this book is good and reliable; however, the same information is available for free on the internet from a variety of sources. I was sadly disappointed with this book and the other Troutman book Military to Federal Career Guide that I also purchased. The CD is included with the second book mentioned. I has 52 files in total; but, these provide very few examples because the same resume is repeatedly used to show examples of different resume builder formats (e.g paper resume, USA Jobs resume, and Resumix)and each example is given in a word document format and PDF so immediately the number of eamples is decreased from 52 to 26. As such, the CD amounts to 13 resume examples and one that provides separate KSAs. The best value that comes from this book is a profitable marketing tool for the author’s website and other, quite pricey writing and coaching services. Before buying this book, I would recommend that you check with your local library or bookstore to see if they have a copy so you can review the content and decide how useful it might be in relation to your knowledge of the federal job market.
The Oz Principle Getting Results through Individual and Organizational Accountability
August 7, 2009 by Career Ideas · Leave a Comment
The Oz Principle Getting Results through Individual and Organizational Accountability
A decade ago, The Oz Principle took the business world by storm. At its root, the principle works like this: Like Dorothy and the gang in The Wizard of Oz, most businesspeople have the tools to succeed, but when things go wrong they blame circumstance or others instead of looking within for the true cause of unsatisfactory results. Once individuals learn to accept responsibility, they can use the Oz Principle to become better leaders.
Now, with corporate scandals in the headlines and the culture of victimization running rampant at every level of the business world, Roger Connors, Tom Smith, and Craig Hickman return with a new edition of The Oz Principle. Fully revised, this edition will update the statistics, concepts, and relevant companies through fresh, timely anecdotes and stories.
User Ratings and Reviews
5 Stars Accountability in 20th century - Above the line - See it, Own it, Solve it, Do it
One of the great books on production management. Millions of people are discovering “above the line” essential to keeping their jobs, remaining competitive, and building the future.
1. Accountability will help revitalize American character, strengthen the global competitiveness of American’s Corporations, improve the quality of products and services produced by company world-wide, increase the responsiveness of organizations to the needs and want of customers, reduce abuse, and expand happiness, fulfillment, and power of the individual.
2. The real value and benefit of accountability stems from a person’s or an organizations ability to influence events and outcomes before they happen because individuals are proactive seeing, owning, and solving problems.
3. Accountability is rising about circumstances and achieving the desired results.
4. Most people look at accountability as a individual responsibility and not a joint venture. Things tend to fall through the cracks because they fall outside the boundaries that have been drawn around independent aspects of their jobs. When people assume the attitude of joint accountability for all aspects of the project, the cracks or boundaries disappear, and people then see it their responsibility to make sure the ball is not dropped.
5. Kim clark said, “The core team shares responsibilities with the heavyweight project manager for the development procedures followed by the team, and for the overall results that those procedures deliver. The core team is accountable for the success of the project…”
6. Not only must you play the role of solving the problem, you must be able to acknowledge and own your contribution to the circumstances.
7. Interdependence means you can cooperate, combine talents and abilities, and create something together. The most powerful organizations apply the principles of interdependence and joint accountability.
8. Ask for feedback in a comfortable, quiet place, free from distractions; be sincere about getting honest feedback, and remember feedback represents an important point of view.
9. The United States has entered into a new era of free lance work-force of temps, contractors, and part-time workers.
10. The victim side suggests you played no role in creating the circumstances. Millions keep themselves from happiness because of their unwillingness to see both sides of the story and own their circumstances. An accountable person accepts how his behavior contributed to their situation and sets about overcoming those circumstances, no matter how difficult. Owning our circumstances gives us power to avoid powerlessness that comes from being a victim.
11. Don’t withdraw as negative feedback starts to come in. Remember these are valuable points of view.
12. Being above the line means “seeing it”, “owning it”, and “solving it”. “Doing it” means you must continuously stay above the line. The fear of risk of failing can be so debilitating that people build walls between solving it and doing it. Companies that don’t implement, “stay above the line” pay a high price in telling people what to do all along the line. A wake up call must be sound to help employees see the gravity of the situation and how little they are contributing to the solution
1 Star The Oz Principle
the book is good, unfortunately, I didn’t receive all of the books that I ordered. I ordered 8 and was shipped 5. The Amazon website is too difficult for my little mind to navigate and complain. So, here I am, using the wrong avenue to get to the right destination. Maybe.
2 Stars Great, if you live in Oz…
Sadly, the principles in this book are almost entirely unrealistic. Oz offers some wonderful ideology about being productive, handling crisis, and accepting responsibility, but in the end, it seems written by managers for employees. Managers and executives don’t like to hear excuses, no matter how real they are. They just want results. This sort of ‘go team go’ book is music to their ears…and completely out of touch with the real world.
The fact of the matter is, there will always be slackers. And if you pick up the slack they leave, you will find yourself working at %150 while they work at %50. According to this book, that’s just fine and dandy as long as the work gets done. Yes, emergencies happen. Bad things happen. Taking it on the chin and pressing onward can be a good thing in these cases. But daring to complain or feel abused is ‘thinking below the line’, even if your complaints and frustrations are real, at least according to Oz. And of course if someone else drops the ball, you are supposed to simply pick it up and run…again and again if need be. Yay you! Meanwhile the guy who dropped the ball is laughing and leaving work early.
Executives would find this book a lot more helpful than the standard wage slave at the bottom of the totem pole. Executives see immediate and positive results with these philosophies. We peons won’t. I found it very telling that throughout the book there was never any mention of any real, positive, measurable reward for doing more than your fair share, just a pat on the back and a “good job dude”. I’m sorry, but if I have to go above and beyond, I expect more than a certificate, a photo op, or a “Thanks…er..what’s your name again?” from the CEO. Selflessly sacrificing for the good of the company sounds great, but not if it becomes standard practice and I don’t get paid for it…while others making as much or more than I do snicker at my herculean efforts to clean up others’ messes.
The bottom line for this book is “Suck it up and don’t complain. You’ll be a better person for it, and your BOSS–not you–will reap many rewards for it.” Hey, enjoy living in Oz. I’ll be over here in Kansas trying to pay my bills and keep my kids fed.
1 Star Oz - Or How To Waste Executive Time
The executives in my company are going through this program. For months I’ve watched them waste - at a minimum, just at my location - $2,000 a week doing the homework, the meetings, the conference calls, the discussions. This is repeated throughout the country at over 3,500 of my company’s sites. And the irony? They continue to micromanage everyone under them, countermand every decision made by an underling, reprimand every initiative made without their input. Now they’re talking about “rolling it out” to all employees at department meetings. Of course, they’re also talking about layoffs. Wonder which will happen first? Wonder which will be the biggest waste?
5 Stars I built a company culture on this book!
I’m now using this book to build a corp. culture for the second time. I buy a copy for every employee. I know they don’t all read it. But, we use it as the text for company meetings, training and performance expectations. Big help in getting people to take more responsibility for our success as a company.
Alcohol Can Be a Gas Fueling an Ethanol Revolution for the 21st Century
August 5, 2009 by Career Ideas · Leave a Comment
Alcohol Can Be a Gas Fueling an Ethanol Revolution for the 21st Century
Alcohol Can Be a Gas! is the only comprehensive book ever written on alcohol fuel production and use for home and farm. Until now, it has been very difficult for farmers, contractors, alternative energy aficionados, those concerned about Peak Oil, and small-scale entrepreneurs to obtain good, accurate information on producing alcohol, or on converting vehicles to run on alcohol fuel. And with all the conflicting news stories about ethanol, the public finds it difficult to sort fact from fiction. This text, which has been reviewed by scientists around the world, is the definitive reference work on alcohol fuel.
Alcohol Can Be A Gas! contains 640 8-1/2 by 11 pages, with 514 charts, photos, and illustrations to reinforce the information-dense text. The book is geared for the nonscientific reader, but its 473 endnotes provide the technical foundation behind the accessible prose. A 700-word glossary and a 6300-entry index extend the book’s usefulness.
This book is the distilled essence of the most pertinent information ever assembled in one place on alcohol fuel, the technology that can help us finally become producers of almost limitless energy, instead of extractors of finite resources. How we produce our energy from here on out will determine how we govern ourselves and how we relate to nature and the environment; it will also create a sea change in where wealth concentrates. It will determine if the future is ruled by a small number of armed dictatorships backed by military and industrial interests (a cabal author David Blume likes to refer to as MegaOilron or the Oilygarchy), or if energy, and therefore power, is held by a diffusion of democratic entities, based on their ingenuity and ability to gather a portion of their daily solar income.
As Blume writes in the Introduction to Alcohol Can Be a Gas!: “Various prospective publishers argued that putting all of this material into one large volume might scare off readers who just want a recipe book of how to make alcohol. They said, ‘All this history and politics is fascinating, but aren’t you afraid that including it in your how-to book would scare away some buyers?’ ‘Put it in a separate publication,’ their marketing experts said. But in the final analysis, I decided that this book should be a complete tool kit to revolutionize our transportation energy system, combining a broad, sweeping vision with intricate detail.
“I spent four years working on this book with a small team of researchers. I traveled all over the United States in search of the most up-to-date information. In frozen South Dakota, I talked to Orrie Swayze and his farmer and VFW buddies who are taking on the oil companies, and to alcohol combustion engineer and alcohol aviation expert, Jim Behnken. I went to Decatur, Illinois, to see the largest alcohol plant in the U.S., Archer Daniels Midland’s 200-million-gallon-per-year plant. My travels also took me to Brazil to document the world’s largest alcohol fuel program.
“It took over 25 years to finally get this book to you. It represents the confidence of almost 30 people who collectively loaned more than $250,000 to see this project through. It’s the most comprehensive book ever written about alcohol fuel. Its production has been a massive effort that has depended on the cooperation of hundreds of people who contributed both their knowledge and, more importantly, their experiences.”
User Ratings and Reviews
5 Stars Alcohol Can Be a Gas!
This is a great book for the thinking citizen! Compared in price, and size, of other books on `alternative energy’, David Blume delivers. That said, the driving idea behind the successful use of the information provided does depend on the individual and (convincing) their/our! community to accept past, and future wisdom of basic principles. The hardback version I purchased here at amazon.com with delivery, was well worth the money. Yet if price is any sort of stumbling block, buy the paperback, read it, lend it to someone who will read it… and both parties will find a bushel of reachable dreams to live now, and for the future of this country, and world.
Since this book is intended to inspire a working ideal across a vast range of climates and social structures to implement fairly complex (yet easy to understand) set(s) of inter-dependent systems, each producing valuable products, it is a bit vague on specifics in certain areas concerning {finding} `by-products’. Still, it is certainly detailed concerning alcohol as a fuel; making it, using it, modifying engines to use it, and in providing the sense to do so. This book embodies `what the real America is all about’!
5 Stars The “Bible” of alcohol production and use
The definitive journal on all aspects of alcohol as a fuel. My only regret is that I missed meeting David Blume in person to thank him and shake his hand when he came to my town for a book signing. In this book the history of alcohol and its place in the current energy formula is explained. Practical applications that each of us can do to use alcohol for fuel and develop our own fuel are explained. David Blume outlines on how we can free ourselves of dependence on foreign sources of energy and boost our economy in the process. This book should be required reading for all Americans. If you are interested in green energy, want to be informed and learn how you can become more involved in domestic green energy production, than buy this book.
3 Stars Good ideas…too much information
Once you get past Blume’s ranting and raving over his dislike for republican politicians, and once you get by his crying about how his tv show was pulled from public television supposedly by oil companies in the early 80’s, you come to realize that this book actually has some good information.
I feel the book had too much information in it for a single read and should have been broken into many smaller books such as one book on organic farming, another on ethanol creation and a third book on Blume hates republicans and the oil companies.
As you read this book it becomes apparent that Blume is knowledgable in the aspects of ethanol creation and organic farming, but that leads to the question why doesn’t Blume start his own ethanol business? You get from the book in his rants is because oil companies won’t allow it. For me that is what competition is all about. If you make a superior product, which I believe ethanol is, and you can deliver it to the customer at a reasonable cost, the customers will buy it, and all the oil lobby money in the world won’t be able to stop it.
However after reading this book it is apparent Blume is not much of a competitor and is probably why he doesn’t start his own business. It sounds like his solution is for every American to grow their own food and create their own fuel which history has shown is a losing effort.
I am giving this book 3 stars because there is valuable information in here about ethanol creation and the harmful affects of gasoline so I would recommend the read, but do not let this book be your be all end all for ethanol education.
5 Stars Aussie delivery
Excellent book with lots of inspiration , both detail and broad overview.
i wish i could buy 10 copies and show politicians ,farmers and friends…
Delivery to Australia was super quick.
Redleg
5 Stars It’s worth it.
I’m no rocket scientist so I was worried that I would not be able to understand the techno part of this book. It is an easy read. Makes me feel very smart and I am learning a lot. I am going to make a backyard still and produce alcohol from the info in the book. The history and politics of alcohol fuel was also very interesting. It changes how I think about energy and the sources. It provides options to our current energy dilemma and having options is always a good thing. Good book if you want practical, concise facts and figures with how to info.
Now What The Young Persons Guide to Choosing the Perfect Career
August 3, 2009 by Career Ideas · Leave a Comment
Now What The Young Persons Guide to Choosing the Perfect Career
The impolite truth nobody mentions in college commencement speeches: “Many of you have just spent four years and a small fortune studying something you will never use, and, if you do, you won’t like all that much. Have a nice life.” Up until now, you’ve had to rely on hit-and-miss methods of picking your career that lead to only 30 percent of college graduates reporting satisfaction with their careers.
That’s because up until now there has never been a book that guides you through the difficult process of designing a career that gives you the best chance for both high-level success and satisfaction. But career guru Nicholas Lore has found a way to show you how to custom design a career where you will:
Look forward to going to work
Be extremely successful and productive
Use your natural talents fully in work that fits your personality
Be highly respected because you excel at your work
In Now What?, he helps you put all the pieces together to make wise decisions about what you will do with your life and how you can best go about setting and accomplishing your life and work goals. You’ll also learn the skills you need to live an extraordinary life.
Filled with charts, worksheets, and quizzes, Now What? is the cutting-edge guide for choosing a career that fits you perfectly — whether you’re a college student, a twentysomething already out in the working world, or a high school student just getting started.
User Ratings and Reviews
2 Stars Now What Should I Read?
Hello folks, this is my first review on Amazon. yay. I’m not much of a critic and I hate to bash on other people’s work, but I really felt the need to give my two cents about this book.
I’m in my mid-twenties who wants a career change and I plan on reading a handful of these self help books. A few weeks ago I completed Richard Bolles’ Parchute 2009 book and thought it was awesome. I was fully engaged from page one and enjoyed all the exercises.
For my next book, I debated between Lore’s Pathfinder and Now What?, and decided on the latter because I thought it would have updated info based on this rough job market.
Chapters 1,2 and the first part of 3 are fine. Lore briefly explains why a career that fits you benefits various aspects of your life and how tradition methods of career placement usually fail (i.e college career centers, parents, etc….) The last part of Chapter 3 is what kills it for me. He explains that if I truly want to find my perfect career, I should invest $500-600 on a personality testing program conducted by various organizations including the Rockport Institute which, duh, he started and owns. While he’s at it, he should’ve pitch in a timeshare in Tahoe… he might have sold me! It was just awkward. He might have been able to get away with it if he worded it differently and maybe mentioned it toward the end of the book. Instead I was stuck with the mentality that I just spent my $$$ on something that the author just admitted isn’t the best thing for me. Laaaame.
Everything that followed was just as lame. “The Career Design Toolkit” exercise, which is supposed to be the meat of the book, doesn’t come until about chapter 15. Yet he uses most of the previous chapters to explain how the Toolkit will work and how great it’s going to be for me. It’s quite boring, confusing and irritating.
Actually, I’m at Chapter 16 and I don’t feel I can go further. In 16 chapters, I’ve discover that I want a fufilling job that makes me happy, I’m an ISFP (which I’ve known since high school) and that I’m an introverted Maestro… whatever that means.
So, on to my next book! And hopefully it will lead me to write a more positive review to make up for this crappy one! Actually, I’m going to write a nice review on the Parachute book. I highly recommend it!
5 Stars Best book I found for career direction
I purchased this book for my niece, who is a college sophmore and struggling with what to do with her life. We spent an afternoon going through several chapters and quizes. We found the book to be very enlightening. It confirmed a direction she was considering and gave her confidence to pursue her passion.
I am now purchasing the book to use with my son, who is a high school senior. Now What provides a variety of personal assessments that really help a young adult see why they would be good in a particular field or work environment. I wished my high school counselor had a similar book when I was a teen.
5 Stars Heading Down a New Path
As a young professional who devoted so much time and energy to a career I thought I would love, it was disheartening to realize after 4 years and 2 companies that I hated what I was doing. I had no idea how to figure out what to do next… then I found my guide - my career coach and co-author of this book, Anthony Spadafore.
I spent the last few months working with Anthony (www.pathfinderscareerdesign.com) and became a guinea pig of sorts as he helped me navigate my way utilizing this new book. Each chapter is filled with relevant and purposeful information, as well as meaningful inquiries to help you dig deep inside and really put some thought behind what you want to do for the rest of your life! You spend so much of your life at work… too much to be miserable and hate what you do. Don’t you owe it to yourself to find what truly makes you happy, what satisfies you and empowers you? I think you do and this new book will help you do that.
Unlike any other career-related program I’ve personally experienced or seen advertised, this book steps outside of that box and takes you down 3 separate paths that ultimately come together as one when you are ready to design your career: 1 - Natural Talents, 2 - Meaning & Subject Matter, 3 - Workplace Environment.
This book goes against everything we are taught about choosing a career. I am willing to bet that most of you heard this question asked of you many times - “What do you want to be when you grow up?” Typically, you would answer with a job title such as “doctor”, “fireman”, “President of the United States”, etc. Whatever your little heart desired - you can be anything! Well, I don’t know about you, but the thought of “anything” was a bit overwhelming. And it’s awfully disappointing to start down a career path, investing time, money, and energy into something you end up hating.
I encourage you to read this book and learn how to approach it from the other side. Instead of picking the title first, try backing into it - figure out the components first, then find the title that meets your criteria. This book will help you with that - every step of the way.
My biggest revelation that came about as a result of this process was that I didn’t need to stuff myself into a career “box” that didn’t fit. And for the last 4 years of my life, that is exactly what I was trying to do. It’s no wonder I hated my job. It didn’t fit who I was or what I desired - talents, meaning, environment and all. Instead, I made the choice to design a career “box” that fits me for who I am… not the other way around.
I successfully completed Anthony’s career change program using this book just a short time ago. Now, I am making choices and taking chances to pursue the new career that I designed… for me and me alone. I am a success story - a positive result of using this book.
If you are truly serious about finding a career that fits, and you are willing to put the time and energy into this process, then you are in the right place. Buy this book and start down your new path.
5 Stars A Comprehensive guide for all young people
A fantastic book to help guide you find that perfect career. Lore doesn’t waste any time in this book and gets right to it. His 25+ years of coaching experience shows when he tells you exactly what you have to do and how to use this guide to find the perfect career of your choice.
He is funny but very serious regarding why traditional methods are outdated and not suited for the 18-30 crowd.
Lore uses proven goal attaining techniques used my those of the likes of Tonny Robbins and Robert Kiyosaki of Rich Dad Poor Dad and applies them to helping you find the perfect career.
This is a book you want to read over and over and bookmark certain chapters to refer back from time to time. This book is different in that the first part is the learning part, and the second part is the doing part. If you’re like me, who really only learns from actually doing, then you’ll love this part.
This is a book you can pick up on your own and follow through or better yet, with a buddy and both of you set deadlines to get through each chapter and challenge each other. I could also see this being used in High School as an elective for Seniors and as a college course elective for all undergrads!
5 Stars Groundbreaking Aid to People Choosing a Career
Nick Lore has written a book that takes career choice seriously while writing in a tone that is light enough to be read. He has moved so far past those ridiculously unhelpful “aptitudes and interests” tests foisted upon high school and college students that it does this book a disservice by putting it in the same category as those tests.
As an industrial-organizational psychologist, I have been impressed by the growing sophistication with which employers are trying to fit the person to the job and to the organization. A wide array of tests, screening mechanisms, and sophisticated recruitment strategies attest to the high value employers see in getting a good fit.
Yet, the other side of the coin — the young person’s act of choosing a career — has received far less attention and care. For the most part, the process and thinking behind such a critical choice is haphazard at best.
“Now What?” doesn’t sugar-coat this process. On the contrary, Mr. Lore portrays career choice as a profoundly difficult process that involves time and dedication. It is probably better to think of this book as a workbook than a mere self-help book.
Yet, for the person who takes the time — perhaps measured in weeks or months — to work through Mr. Lore’s process, there is the distinct promise that he or she will end up in that blessed minority of people who truly love their work.
It has been years since I insisted that my 18-year-old son read a particular book. Until now. He’s got his own copy now, as will his 14-year-old brother in a couple of years. I’ll be helping both of them work through the steps Mr. Lore outlines “Now What?” until we’re all the way through the process. I’m confident they’ll see my gift of this book to them as I see Lore’s gift to us: as an act of love.
