10 Winning Characteristics

Courage-not complacency-is our need today. Leadership not salesmanship. - John F. Kennedy

As we finish out the year, now is the perfect time to do a little self reflection and determine what you want from your career in 2008. If you’ve considered moving up in your current organization or perhaps within another, you must decide whether or not you possess the necessary leadership characteristics to truly lead your company to success. The following 10 characteristics are found in many great leaders. How many of them do you possess?

1. Positive. You don’t find many Negative Nellys in leadership positions. Most are extremely positive, looking for ways to see the glass as half full regardless of current circumstances.

2. Proactive. Leaders don’t wait for things to get better, they make them better. This requires you to be thinking of innovative ways to approach problems and devise solutions. You are active, not passive, about your job.

3. Good communicator. In order for a leader to be able to lead a team, he/she must be able to communicate clearly and effectively.

4. Open-minded. Some may think leaders have all the good ideas. That’s not true. Leaders are able to recognize good ideas, regardless of who came up with them. This requires them to be open-minded and willing to give credit where credit is due.

5. Confident. That’s confidence not arrogance. Coworkers are not interested in working for an arrogant leader, but they do appreciate being led by someone who has a quiet confidence about them, recognizing that they can lead a team to success.

6. Passionate. Enthusiasm can compensate for a lot of weaknesses. When a leader is passionate about the job they do, the direction they’re heading, and the goals they’ve established, it’s contagious, getting everyone excited about a project.

7. Respectful. It’s important that leaders treat everyone with respect, regardless of whether or not they deserve it. People want to work with a leader who shows them respect. And you’d be amazed at how much respect you earn by being respectful yourself.

8. Inspiring. Good leaders are able to communicate a vision that inspires everyone on the team. They can motivate team members who may have been resistant, and they move others to believe when they may have previously been doubtful.

9. Delegator. The best leaders recognize that they can’t, and shouldn’t, do everything themselves. They delegate well, divvying out tasks to team members who can adequately perform them. They also recognize that team members have unique skills and abilities that can contribute to the success of a team.

10. Motivated. You don’t become a leader by sitting back to watch others do all the work. Leaders are motivated to keep moving, to work hard and see the fruit of their labors.

Becoming a good leader is a process. Most work to develop these characteristics over time. So if you don’t possess all ten right now, it doesn’t mean you can’t lead, it just means you have a few things to work on in order to improve your leadership abilities. So focus on which character traits you need to develop and get moving! 2008 could be your year to shine as company leader.

“The quality of leadership, more than any other single factor, determines the success or failure of an organization.”
– Fred Fiedler & Martin Chemers, Improving Leadership Effectiveness

“People ask the difference between a leader and a boss . . . . The leader works in the open, and the boss in covert. The leader leads, and the boss drives.”
– Theodore Roosevelt

When your practice grows enough to sustain one or more employees, you must exercise good leadership skills in order to direct your staff with inspiration and focus. When a team feels that it’s lead by someone with powerful vision who values their participation and inspires them to do great things, the business will thrive and the employees will contribute greatly to its success. But as an accountant or bookkeeper, the leadership role may feel a bit oversized or awkward. Don’t let that stop you from running a winning business. You can develop into a strong leader as long as you are willing to focus on a few things. Here are 4 traits of influential and inspiring leaders. Try a few on for size.

1. Vision

Theodore M. Hesburgh, retired president of the University of Notre Dame, once said, “The very essence of leadership is that you have to have vision. You can’t blow an uncertain trumpet.” Leaders envision what can, but hasn’t yet, been achieved. They have a clear picture of where they want their business to go and how it can get there. Unwilling to settle for the status quo, leaders are striving for improvement, progress, and continued and amplified success. But more than that, good leaders can share this vision with their staff and communicate it in a way that makes it clear, reasonable, and most importantly, inspirational.

But how do you do that? First you must have a vision. What do you want your business to become? Be willing to release limitations and think big. Imagine that success in your mind. What does it look and feel like? Then create a strategy. What will it take to accomplish that vision? Design a 5-year, 10-year, or 15-year game plan and take the actions necessary to achieve it. And most importantly, develop a dialog about that vision and plan; share it with employees. Practice talking about your vision in a way that is dynamic and exciting.

2. Passion

I once taught part-time at a university. I didn’t have as much experience or expertise as my colleagues, but my students seemed to enjoy my classes. On teacher evaluations the reason became clear. The most popular response I received was, “The teacher is passionate about the subject.”

Passion is contagious. One way you can ignite your vision is with passion. If you’re truly excited about something, that excitement will spread throughout your office, touching everyone who works for and with you. If you don’t currently have something that impassions you about your business, find something quick. That passion will drive you, and your team, toward your vision.

3. Team Leader

Theodore Roosevelt once said, “The best executive is the one who has sense enough to pick good men to do what he wants done, and self-restraint to keep from meddling with them while they do it.” Remember that you’re trying to lead employees in the direction you would have them go, not push them. We trust that you’ve already hired competent individuals who you trust to do the work you assign. You should do the best you can to motivate and inspire your employees with clear direction, and then let them do their work. Also remember that some of the best ideas will come from your own employees. Be open to their feedback and willing to learn from what they share.

4. Character

Employees are more likely to follow leaders they respect. And employees respect leaders with good character. In all that you do see that you’re honest, hard-working, reliable, equitable, and trustworthy.

While you may not feel like a leader right now, you can become one that employees would be proud to follow. Evaluate your current leadership style and see how you might implement two or more of the above traits. And give yourself the time to learn and improve. You may be surprised at the natural leadership instinct within you.

‘Know Thyself’

Discovering what really stirs you is a good start toward finding balance between work and life

By Carol Kleiman — Chicago Tribune

THE AMERICAN DREAM. Is it a dream or actually a nightmare — one that may be at the root of much of the stress in the workplace and at home?

The upside of the American Dream is that it strongly asserts that no matter who you are or what you do, if you are hard-working, honest, dependable, conscientious and loyal, you’ll get to the top. Its positive aspects include a vision of job security, raises, promotions, health benefits, retirement insurance and even respect.

And they all are good thoughts to keep in mind.

But there’s also a downside, a negative underbelly to the dream that can create a lot of problems for anyone who wants to have both a fulfilling personal and professional life.

“The American Dream also says that’s what’s important is to make a lot of money, to have a lot of stuff, to be powerful,” said Judith Citrin, a stress and nontraditional health counselor, teacher and lecturer based in Wilmette, Ill.

“While it’s important to have a dream to make a dream come true, this particular one seems not to be working for a lot of folks.”

Citrin, a prominent sculptor and painter, has “helped people discover themselves” since 1978 and was on the staff of the Oasis Center, a personal growth organization in Chicago, from 1981 until its closing in 1999. She has led healing workshops and training sessions worldwide.

“When people are so caught up with making money and having material possessions, they’re disregarding their very human needs for companionship, solitude, time with family and communication with nature,” she said.

Trying to make the American Dream come true can be quite a challenge for some people who, nonetheless, work very hard to achieve it.

“I see a lot of very tired people - they’re exhausted,” said Citrin, who is working on a book she describes as “my own inner journey.”

The consultant observes that today’s employees “often work 60 to 80 hours a week to maintain what they think will give them pleasure - and then they find they’re not being fulfilled.”

And no achievement ever seems to be enough.

“The idea of an American Dream is very seductive, because if you try to make it a reality, you develop an addiction for more,” Citrin said. “There is no end to it, and what it doesn’t address is the emptiness it creates. Feeling fulfilled is not an outside job, it’s an inside one.”

Citrin believes that only following the so-called American Dream is “the wrong route to inner peace and happiness.”

And increasingly, others are echoing her thoughts.

The therapist says many of her clients are saying, “Enough, enough. I’m not taking this anymore. I want to be a full person. I want to have a life.”

She keeps her own balance by “doing yoga, smelling the budding green grass and taking walks every day. Communing with nature makes whatever issues confront me become smaller, less than a grain of sand.”

And Citrin, who wants to help people to “become whole,” suggests a way to begin to replace the American Dream with a better vision:

“Know thyself,” she advises.

Identifying “the things that stir you deep inside . . . that make you deeply happy” is a good start for creating a road map for work/life balance, according to John Clark, author of The Money is the Gravy: Finding the Career that Nourishes You (Warner Books).

Clark, who was a highly successful commercial lawyer and managing partner of a prominent law firm in New Zealand, gave it all up to begin a journey toward “self-fulfillment.”

He, too, believes the dream of success, with its “sterile connotations of money, status and duty,” may lead to what he calls “career angst,” instead of the more desirable “career bliss.”

“You may achieve a healthy bankbook and public esteem, but that’s all,” Clark says.

Joining Professional Organizations Can Help Your Job Hunt

Professional professionals: If you’ve ever for one moment thought that joining a professional association in your field would not help increase your chances of finding a job, consider this:

A whopping 79 percent of 1,300 hiring managers and executive recruiters nationwide believe that ”applicants who belong to professional organizations are higher-quality candidates. Those who belong to such groups tend to have more experience and education.”

That’s the finding of a recent study by the American Marketing Association, based in Chicago. And the membership of the marketing association itself encourages the supposition that such networks attract top performers:

Eighty-five percent of the organization’s 40,000 members worldwide have at least five years’ experience and 59 percent have a graduate degree, according to Lynette Rowlands, the association’s interactive marketing manager.

For its own membership, and other marketing and public relations professionals, the association has introduced the Marketing Career Network, an online hiring job board.

For more information, go to www.marketingpower.com/postjobs. Or call the association at 800-262-1150.

Salary statistics: Most of us don’t need anyone to tell us that salary increases are at a record low this year, averaging 3.3 percent for salaried nonexempt employees and nonunion hourly workers, 3.4 percent for salaried exempt employees and 3.7 percent for executives.

Hewitt Associates, a global human resources outsourcing and consulting firm headquartered in Lincolnshire, Ill., says the salary boosts of 2004 “represent some of the lowest increases ever recorded in Hewitt’s 28 years of gathering and analyzing this type of data.”

However, the firm says its study of 1,185 companies nationwide shows that “salary increase projections for 2005 are slightly higher.” By “slightly,” the consulting firm means that “no increase will be higher than one-tenth of a percentage point.”

Deadly resumes: Too many resumes read like obituaries, and “that’s why they get buried,” observes Irv Orenstein, president of Orenstein Advertising, which gives job hunting guidance to job seekers worldwide.

Orenstein, whose offices are in Huntingdon Valley, Pa., has been giving advice on resumes for more than 30 years — and he says the deadly resumes he has seen could fill a giant trash bin.

“An obituary is merely a recounting of past accomplishments, which might be quite wonderful, but a resume, much like an advertisement, should point up what you can do for the company,” Orenstein explained. “That’s a significant difference.”

So if you don’t want your resume buried in a pile of other dull resumes, make it proactive, positive and geared to what the hiring company needs.

In other words, advertise yourself.

Just a job? “Either you view your job as simply a way to make money . . . or else you turn your work into something that somehow enhances your life,” observes Alexandra Robbins.

Robbins is the author of “Conquering Your Quarterlife Crisis: Advice From Twentysomethings Who Have Been There and Survived” (Perigree, $14.95).

And if you’re in a job that makes you “feel dead inside eight to 10 hours a day,” Robbins has this advice: “If you want more from your job than a paycheck and your current position isn’t providing that, then it’s time for a change.”

Improving Your Image and Your Job Prospects

To get the respect that leads to better jobs and promotions, one must stand out from the crowd. The Professional Bookkeeper program gives you a distinct edge with its emphasis upon learning by doing and the practical application of the Accounting process. Knowing that you have done the full range of Accounting tasks gives you the confidence to apply for a job with confidence that you will get it.

Learn More About Accounting Training With the Professional Bookkeeper Program

A Successful Job Interview:

A Checklist for Interview Success

It can be the most exciting and excruciating meeting ever: the job interview. How do you prepare to dazzle and amaze a potential employer, or at least manage your nerves long enough to sell yourself? Here’s a checklist that will help you not only survive the interview, but rise to the top and leave a lasting impression.

•Expect to be nervous

It’s pointless to try to avoid the interview jitters. Accept that you’re going to be nervous and even jokingly acknowledge it with the interviewer if you feel that will help. Know that just about every job applicant has felt just like you at one point or another.

•Dress the part

Now maybe it’s okay to wear jeans and a Gap t-shirt to a Baskin Robbins interview, but you’ll want to dress the part for a more professional job. Shop around for tailored outfits that you would feel comfortable wearing to interviews, realizing you may not be expected to power-dress all the time after you’re hired.

•Bring copies of your resume

While your interviewer should have a copy of your resume on hand, it’s good to carry your own copy as a reference.

•Maintain cordial, not creepy, eye contact

Eye contact communicates confidence and ease. Smile and look your interviewer in the eye when appropriate.

•Don’t interrupt

Sometimes a bad case of nerves and the desire to impress can make applicants a little skittish and quick to answer interview questions. But be patient and wait for the interviewer to complete the question before you jump in. And there’s nothing wrong with waiting a second or two to compose your thoughts before answering. A pregnant pause or two is expected, and can even communicate thoughtfulness.

•Answer briefly

Job applicants are often so anxious to impress that they’ll go on and on about their achievements, hardly letting the interviewer get a word in edgewise. Keep your answers brief, and ask follow-up questions if necessary to ensure you’ve provided enough information. A good gauge is to talk 30% of the interview.

•Ask questions

Come prepared to ask 4 or 5 questions. A few are bound to be answered in the course of the interview, so that should leave you with one or two to ask at the end. A standard interview question is, ‘Do you have any questions about the company or the position?’ It’s always good to respond with at least one inquiry (and be sure to ask about more than just salary).

•Don’t be shy, sell yourself!

This is your chance to shine. Don’t be afraid to praise yourself when appropriate. A job interview is a good place for self-promotion, but be sure it’s directed at what your skill-set can contribute to their success.

•Know their business

Do your homework. Study their business and their competition. Know their objectives and what helps them be successful. This will not only impress your interviewer, but it also helps you better frame your responses to interview questions.

•Say ‘thank you’

Good manners never hurt. Thank your interviewer for the opportunity to talk about the position and their business. In fact, sending brief thank-you notes or email messages can be a polite gesture and a reminder of the time you spent with them.

Universal Accounting’s Professional Designations Can Boost Any Applicant’s Sell-ability

If you want to increase your skills and add a professional designation to your resume, UAC has two certifications for you: The Professional Bookkeeper, and the QuickBooks Specialist. Both programs will increase your confidence as they increase your abilities, and will act as good speaking points in any interview.

The Value of a Good Accountant:

How to Recognize Your Potential and Become a Priceless Employee

“It has been my experience that competency in mathematics, both in numerical manipulations and in understanding its conceptual foundations, enhances a person’s ability to handle the more ambiguous and qualitative relationships that dominate our day-to-day financial decision-making.” –Alan Greenspan

Look in the mirror and tell yourself, “I’m good enough, I’m smart enough, and doggone it, people like me.” We promise this article won’t be a humorless version of Stuart Smalley’s SNL’s daily affirmations. But sometimes it’s good to recognize your value, and accountants are valuable employees. But recognizing your value alone is not enough; accountants generally have untapped potential that can turn them into their employer’s best friend. How? Here are just five things that can turn you into a priceless employee.

1. Become the Profit Center Expert
What if you became the local expert on company profit? What if you were the employee coworkers and supervisors went to in order to find out what was working and what wasn’t? That’s an enviable position most would love to have. And as an accountant you are perfectly suited to become that Profit Expert.

You probably already know that accounting, marketing, and production are the three functions that must work well together to ensure business success. Any business function that acts independently of the other two can doom a company. For example, if production has not told marketing what it currently produces, marketing dollars are wasted. Likewise, if accounting does not tell production what products are profitable, the company losses money. The more closely these three functions work together, the more profitable the company will be. And because you are an accountant with access to crucial financial information, you can become the go-to person when it comes to profit. But the key here is you don’t want to wait until people come to you; begin communicating with marketing and production today! That will increase the profitability that you as an accountant are expected to monitor.

2. Practice Effective Communication
And that brings us to number two. Without effective communication skills, it’s fairly difficult to become the profit center expert. Unfortunately, accountants are stereotyped as quiet bean-counters who hide in back offices. In order to break that stereotype and become a more dynamic employee, you need to practice effective communication. Mingle around the water cooler, get to know your coworkers, and determine the best methods for sharing information with crucial players in the business.

3. Learn How to Use Accounting Software
If you haven’t t already, you should research different types of accounting software that would help you record and track crucial financial information. Finding the right software could help you be more efficient and, perhaps, more accurate. It could also help you produce valuable reports, thus encouraging your position as Profit Center Expert. Intuit’s QuickBooks Pro is the leading software used by small businesses. If your employer hasn’t yet purchased accounting software, you should suggest they do. And if possible, see if your employer will pay for software training.

4. Acquire Tax Knowledge
Accounting and tax services are no longer expected to be performed by the same person. Accountants don’t necessarily offer tax services and tax preparers don’t necessarily offer accounting services. But you increase your value when you can offer both. By acquiring tax knowledge you accomplish two things: one, you have more to offer your employer, and two; you can become a freelance tax preparer in your spare time.

Universal Accounting Center Can Help You Tap Your Potential
Universal Accounting Center (UAC) can help you accomplish all of the above, and it won’t take you years to do it. Learn more about training to become a Professional Tax Preparer, a QuickBooks Specialist, and a Profit Center Expert. In fact, UAC is currently offering a year-end special where all three training packages are bundled together for one low price. Increase your value as an employee and learn more today!

March Your Career Forward This Month

Small opportunities are often the beginning of great enterprises. - Demosthenes

Too many people are thinking of security instead of opportunity. They seem to be more afraid of life than death. - James F. Bymes

Opportunity is missed by most because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work. - Thomas Alva Edison

I refuse to make New Year resolutions until all the hype has died down. Something about the New Year frenzy makes me uncomfortable about setting goals simply because everyone else is. I like the time to really assess my life before determining where I would like to steer it. And now is about the time I do that.

If you’re anything like me you used to dream about all you could do with your life. The road ahead seems long and endless when you’re twenty-years young. It only takes a few years before you realize just how quickly time flies, and how quickly you can get stuck in a career your don’t like, moving further and further from those dreams. The more complacent you become in your current position, the more impossible those dreams appear. But it doesn’t have to be that way.

There’s no time like the present to start your own accounting practice. Perhaps you have fantasized about being your own boss, working as little or as much as you’d like, calling the shots, and catapulting you and your family into a new and improved lifestyle. And luckily, you’re pining over a very profitable business opportunity. Of all the home business options, a Bookkeeping and Accounting practice is considered by some to be one of the best. In fact, Paul and Sarah Edwards, authors of The Best Home Businesses for the 21st Century, rate a bookkeeping service as the “Best of the Best” home-based businesses.

The Benefits of Having Your Own Accounting and Bookkeeping Practice

There are many reasons why an accounting practice makes so much sense. Here’s a list of some of those reasons:

• Every business is required by law to keep books
• You can earn a good living (the average client will bring in about $300 per month)
• It’s an inexpensive business to start (you probably have most of what is required right now)
• No expensive equipment is required
• You can work anytime, any place
• Rented office space is not required
• Inventory is not required
• You can make money doing what you enjoy

But where do you start?

Since Alf Bostrom founded Universal Accounting Center in 1979, UAC has trained countless financial professionals in the practical application of small business accounting. The field is wide with opportunity. Consider all the local small businesses in your area. They need a competent professional, a Profit Expert, to help guide their businesses to success. And with over 50% of small businesses failing within the first five years, it doesn’t take much to convince these business owners that your services more than pay for themselves.

We Help You Develop the Skills

The Professional Bookkeeper Program is designed specifically to address the needs of small businesses, and Universal Accounting Center’s small business accounting course is the most complete of anything else offered today. And depending on your schedule and situation, it will only take you 60 hours to complete. Imagine earning professional certification in less than one month!

We Help You Secure the Clients

One of the greatest challenges for many small business owners comes in the marketing. You may love working with numbers but groan at the thought of promoting your services and expertise. Universal Accounting Center understands this struggle and can help you eliminate it with the Universal Practice Builder Program.

UAC has developed a turn-key marketing solution which will enable you to grow your business with our proven system. You could work for years on a marketing plan, hitting and missing, only to find your business growing at a snail’s pace. Imagine learning which marketing strategies work in less than 60 hours. Top your Professional Bookkeeper Designation off with this program where you’ll walk away with over 12 marketing strategies that you can implement immediately. Not only that but we guarantee you will earn more than $30,000 in increased annualized billings in just 12 months!

How Bright Is Your Future?

The older we get the more dreams tend to fade. Fortunately we can find hope in something as simple as two Universal courses. The price of these courses is a small investment in a future that will more than pay for itself within the first year. Don’t hesitate to make your dreams happen. Imagine yourself earning the income you deserve from the comfort of your own home. Now make it happen! Order today.

Brighter Days Ahead? Rise in temporary jobs may suggest a pickup in hiring

By Andrea — CBS MarketWatch

SAN FRANCISCO - The U.S. job market is beginning to show signs of life through increased hiring at temporary employment agencies - often a precursor to a job-market turnaround.

While the U.S. jobless rate hit a nine-year high last month, temporary employment rose 2 percent, adding 44,000 jobs in May, the biggest one-month rise in seven years. In June, employment rolls gained another 1.7 percent, with 37,700 new jobs, according to the U.S. Labor Department.

About 2.2 million Americans worked as temp workers in June, according to the preliminary, seasonally adjusted data.

Economists often consider temp hiring a leading indicator of overall job-market improvement.

“The hiring of temps can be a sign that, even though there’s still some shedding of jobs, firms rather than hiring people back on a permanent basis are looking to meet increased demand with temps,” said Matthew Martin, an economist with Economy.com.

Hiring patterns are following a typical recovery scenario, some temp agencies said, with companies adding clerical and blue-collar jobs to fill out ranks thinned by cuts during the recession, but temp hiring of professionals such as accountants gaining more slowly.

Some false starts last year in which temp job gains were not sustained are leading some to express a cautious outlook for permanent employment.

“We’ve definitely seen an uptick,” said Linda Paulk, president of Snelling Personnel Services, a staffing agency based in Dallas. However, “we are anticipating, based on what employers have told us, that it will be a more gradual approach to full-time hiring” than occurred after the recession of the early 1990s.

The unemployment rate peaked at 7.8 percent 15 months after the recession that ended March 1991. It’s been 19 months since the end of the most recent recession in November 2001, as dated by the National Bureau of Economic Research.

July’s unemployment rate likely will drop slightly, to 6.3 percent from June’s 6.4 percent rate, according to the consensus estimate of economists recently polled by CBS MarketWatch. The Labor Department releases the July data on Friday.

Current job-market signals are mixed. Even as tech-industry giant Microsoft announced last week it plans to hire 4,000 to 5,000 workers, job layoffs continue at other companies, and state budget crises may pull down employment numbers.

For instance, California’s budget, likely to become law by the end of the week, eliminates 16,000 jobs.

In previous recessions, blue-collar and clerical hiring exceeded professional jobs, at least initially, experts said.

“You often see the light industrial and clerical sectors of the temp industry come back first,” said Reesa Staten, vice president of research at Robert Half International, a global staffing agency that focuses on professional positions. “Then you might see, following that, the professional sector,” she said.

Unskilled light-construction workers are finding temp work because of some retailers’ desire to revamp their stores, said Paulk, of Snelling Personnel Services, which fills jobs in light labor, clerical and light technical work.

One client has plans to remodel 750 stores in the year starting September, while their previous remodeling plans averaged about 200 stores a year, Paulk said.

Another retailer has upped remodeling plans by about 50 percent, she said. These firms “are talking about changing, about positioning their companies to take advantage of the economic recovery,” she said.

Other employers are hiring temp workers to ease the burden on their permanent workers. Employers are “running so lean that a lot of the existing employees are burned out,” Paulk said.

“To help retain those employees when the economy does come back, we’re providing a lot of supplemental staffing just to pick up the slack on the work that’s coming in,” she said.

Some industries have been busy enough to continue hiring all types of temp workers throughout the slow economy.

“Health care, biotechnology, real estate are still strong,” said Staten, of Robert Half International (RHI: news, chart, profile), and “may have accounting openings, marketing openings, technology openings.”

She noted that technology firms’ hiring outlook was up in the second quarter, while accounting companies’ outlook remained flat, according to a quarterly Robert Half International survey of chief financial officers.

Investment firms have increased their requests for temporary sales assistants, said Marianne Moore, president of Portland, Ore.-based Action Employment Services, LLC, which places office workers in a variety of industries.

Overall, sales in June reached their highest point in two years, she said. And, the mortgage industry continues to play a big part in temp hiring activity.

“If you’ve been an experienced loan processor, we can place you in four different companies,” she said.

The growth is beginning to be seen at small to medium-sized firms, as well as large companies, said Christian De Conti, a senior vice president for Adecco (ADO: news, chart, profile), a global staffing agency based in Switzerland.

“Especially during the last couple of months we’ve been noticing an increase in medium- and small-sized accounts. They’re coming back,” said De Conti, who oversees the company’s U.S. Northwest region. In that region, Adecco saw a 35 percent increase in sales from May to June, De Conti said.

Insurance companies have increased their demand for workers’ compensation processors, he said, while warehouse distribution also is seeing an increase. General laborers, manufacturing workers and receptionists, were also among the most-requested positions.

Still, De Conti hedges his enthusiasm.

“I wouldn’t say that the economy is coming back or turning completely, but (the growth is) for sure a very positive signal.”

Networking Opportunities Abound

One of the very best way to find opportunities is to expand your network of contacts in your field. Our forum gives you a place to find others that are doing the kinds of things that you are and to leverage from what works. Employers in accounting look at our forum. Get involved and increase your chances of getting a better job.

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Personal priorities: Determine what’s important

Gen-Xers learning the realities of the workplace

By Dawn Sagario — The Des Moines Register

Amy Ward is 32 and married, with four cats and one dog.

But no kids.

In former jobs, being sans child meant her commitments outside of work were often considered less important than those of co-workers who had kids.

When deciding who would be available to work a weekend, Ward said children’s baseball games, school conferences or doctors appointments trumped having dinner with her husband.

She said it was those kinds of judgment calls that fostered work environments that squelched her desire to express what was important to her.

A special date night with her husband would not be respected as much as a child’s baseball game, Ward said.

“It’s really hard to object because you remember how important it was for your parents to go to your baseball game. And you think, ‘Well, I guess I could reschedule my date night with my husband.’ It’s hard to speak up.”

In contrast, her current employer has been supportive of her personal priorities, Ward said. That’s included her employer making arrangements so she could observe Jewish holidays.

“The thing that impressed me with this company so much is that no one judges what is important to you,” said Ward, human resource manager at Sogeti USA in Des Moines, Iowa. “Whether it’s some people have a husband or wife, some people are taking care of parents, some people are living on their own — it’s all what matters to you.”

Experts say more employers are establishing work-life initiatives to address the broadening scope of needs for an increasingly diverse work force. For some, that may not involve parenting, but does include caring for elder parents or relatives, going to school or participating in church and community activities.

The common thread heard among experts and workers was that regardless of an individual’s lifestyle, it’s imperative to acknowledge his or her personal priorities. When that’s lacking, resentment and conflict can build up at work among co-workers and toward management.

Recent statistics suggest that 40 percent of America’s full-time work force is composed of single adults.

Mary Young, a workplace researcher in Boston, said work-life programs will need to be redefined as the work force ages. People are delaying marriage and having children, and living and working longer.

“A shrinking percentage of one’s adulthood will be spent being a parent, or married or partnered,” said Young, who in the late 1990s analyzed the quickly growing number of single and nonparent workers.

Young said she foresees elder care benefits in workplaces as the new hot topic on the horizon.

Experts also agree that bosses and workers still clash daily over what are considered “legitimate” reasons for taking off work, for example.

One study from the University of Tulsa found that a majority of single workers without children — 62 percent — felt they were treated differently at work than married people or parents.

That double standard included: Single workers were expected to put in longer hours, volunteer for additional work and do work not expected of those with spouses and children, the survey showed. Single people also felt their personal concerns were under-appreciated and free-time undervalued. They were also perceived as not having important responsibilities outside of work.

There was no real strong backlash against family-friendly policies, like on-site child care or flex schedules for parents, explained Wendy Casper, an assistant professor of psychology at the University of Tulsa, and researcher involved in the survey of 37 singles.

“There’s more of a subtle phenomenon — like ‘What about me?’” Casper said. None of the singles reported overt types of discrimination in pay or promotion.

“Changing attitudes at the manager level would trickle down to how flexible schedules and other policies would be implemented,” she said.

Experts say employers are implementing a variety of other resources and referral services, in addition to child or elder care issues — everything from legal and financial services, to information on boarding for pets and pet insurance and party planning.

“Those companies realize that everybody — regardless of where they are in their cycle of life — are struggling with quality time in their life,” said Linda Roundtree, co-president of the Alliance for Work-Life Progress, based in Scottsdale, Ariz.

Roundtree said 57 percent of business school graduates said that attaining a balance between personal life and career was their primary career goal, according to a study in 2000 by PricewaterhouseCoopers.

Experts also say the interaction between bosses and underlings is shaped by similar experience: The boss who has kids is more likely to be empathetic to an employee-parent who needs to leave to take care of a sick child.

“For people who are child-free, I think having a supervisor who understands those issues — when that person asks to leave early to watch a baseball game, or go to a class for school or participate in a community activity or meet some friends — that this is just as important as a parent seeing their child’s play,” Roundtree said.

The company culture and managers are integral in recognizing that everyone’s life is important, she said. Having a bid or rotation for who works on certain holidays, discussing time off and personal priorities with the work team, having floating holidays and expressing your feelings to your supervisor are ways that everyone’s needs can be met.

Rob Beeston uses his vacation and sick time when he’s had to tend to his 5- and 7-year-old kids.

In a past job, and before he had his own children, Beeston remembers being irritated at seeing his boss take off to pick up his kids when they were sick.

Beeston said now that as inconvenient as it may be — for himself and others at work — there are times when emergencies pop up or things just need to get done.

“As far as the time works out, it works out pretty evenly,” said Beeston of his work hours. The 36-year-old is married and a Web developer for Polk County, Iowa.

Attorney Jennifer Jaskolka-Brown said having a child hasn’t afforded her additional consideration in her job, but has allowed her more flexibility. She comes into work at 5:30 a.m. and leaves at 3:30 p.m. to pick up her 11-month-old son. Having a computer at home lets her get additional work done on Sunday mornings and during her child’s nap time. Her workload increases when it’s a trial week.

“I’m very cognizant of the demands of my profession,” said Jaskolka-Brown, 30, who practices in areas of litigation with Sullivan and Ward PC in Des Moines. “But I’ve been fortunate that my employers have been supportive to the demands of my family life. I do believe that everyone should be afforded the opportunity to have a flexible work schedule, regardless of whether they have children or are caring for an elderly or disabled relative.”

Career Alternatives

It is an unfortunate fact that the best-paying jobs typically are anything but 40-hours per week. Management jobs tend to be the most demanding on one’s time. Once you earn a salary, the expectation is not normally that you will be in the office eight hours and then go home. Nights and weekends often get sacrificed.

If your personal life is more important to you than climbing the ladder to the top, but you want more income than what you bring in now, what is the answer? The Professional Bookkeeper (PB) program shows you how to work a few extra hours per week to increase your spending cash significantly. What’s more important, you set your own hours and can even work from home. If earning $30 to $60 per hour with a source of additional income that you work around your schedule (rather than the other way around) is appealing, click on the link below to learn more.

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“I can’t understand why people are frightened of new ideas. I’m frightened of the old ones.” - John Cage

In 2003, the Washington Post ran a story on the value of employees who take risks and share ideas for company improvement and growth. Randall Thacker, a 30-year old MBA student intern became an idea person for Morris Associates, Inc., a career management and outsourcing firm in the District of Columbia. Originally hired to explore growth options, Thacker’s ideas have gotten him noticed by the company president who says Thacker, “I’ll listen to a lot of what he thinks.”

Wouldn’t you like to be an employee whose boss listen s to a lot of what you think? It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to determine that an employee who captures his boss’s attention is valued. And while most employees have ideas, some more outlandish than others, that’s not all it takes to become an idea person. Here are five tips for coming up with good ideas and presenting them in just the right way to get your boss’s attention.

1. Take Risks

“Risk-taking is the essence of innovation.” - Herman Kahn

To become the idea person you must take risks. Sharing your brilliant ideas with management can be an intimidating and even frightening task. But if you’ve done your homework, and believe your idea can positively impact your organization, the risk is minimal compared to the potential reward.

2. Educate Yourself

Once you’ve decided to become an idea person, you’ll be surprised at how quickly you’ll begin coming up with ideas. But just wanting to come up with ideas isn’t always enough. You;ve got to educate yourself.

Read Widely - Everything from academic journals to pop-culture magazines can expose you to fresh ideas that can positively impact your organization

Attend Conferences - This will expose you to hot topics and new trends. You may find that your greatest aspiration is in listening to others share their great ideas.

3. Listen and Observe

“We have two ears and one mouth so that we can listen twice as much as we speak.” - Epictetus

We’ve all been in meetings with the self-proclaimed “idea person” who does all the talking and none of the listening. Inspiration often comes with the exchange of ideas, and that requires one to listen and observe. What are some issues that need special attention? Is there a current problem that needs a solution? What division needs the most help? You can’t come up with any answers until you’ve heard the questions. You can’t provide any solutions until you’ve seen the problems. And don’t be afraid of other idea people - they can be your greatest source of insight.

4. Identify Idea-Shapers, Those Who Can Help Tailor An Idea For Your Organization

You may have an award-winning idea in your back pocket, but it does no good if not catered to your organization’s needs. In order to fime-tune even the best idea, you shoul look to idea-shapers within your organization. Senior employees, or even management-savvy individuals can often help you tailor your idea and your presentation of that idea to your boss and his/her interests.

5. Determine The Best Approach For “Idea Delivery”

Sometimes politics determine how well an idea is received. Does management expect senior officials to deliver the “ideas,” or does it appreciate input from all employees? You should also consider the best nethod for idea-delivery. Should it be presented in an email or memo, a powerpoint presentation in staff meeting or possibly a private meeting with your boss. The more you listen and observe, the better prepared you’ll be to give your idea the packaging it deserves.

Don’t be afraid to share your ideas. Randall Thacker, the intern showcased in the Washington Post, said, “You’ve got to be willing to take the risk that not all your ideas are going to be accepted. If you’re not honest with yourself, you’re useless.” you’ll find that some won’t be well-received, but as Robert H Schuller once said, ” Success is a matter of not quitting and failure is a matter of giving up too soon.” Even if one idea of every ten that you share produces positive results, you’re contributing to the success of your organization. And that alone make any employee valuable.

If you are searching for more to ingratiate yourself into your company mix, consider the education you will receive with Universal’s Professional Bookkeeper’s Program. Gain the knowledge of how it all works in the industry so you can better address those challenges that arise in your department. Check us out by clicking here.