Experience of course. So is loyalty, dedication and a strong work ethic. However, none of these alone is enough to ensure your job security – that you continue to be employed in the future.

You must add value. That means what you do contributes specifically to your organization’s bottom line. After all, you can work long and hard at counting paperclips – but unless counting paperclips somehow adds to your organization’s bottom line, all of that effort is likely to go unnoticed.

Start Having a Profit –Loss Outlook

Particularly now, organizations need to be lean and efficient. That means they want people who are doing things that create real bottom line value. They want contributors who will provide them with a return on their investment in them.

For salespeople, it’s relatively simple to measure how their work translates to the financial gains – sell more widgets and and increase profits. But for others, it’s not so clear. So, even if your work is far removed from directly generating revenue or decreasing costs, you should have a profit-and-loss outlook. Start by analyzing your job description. What is your job’s overall purpose? State this purpose in a way that relates to an element of the bottom line.

Examples:

• An accountant is responsible for delivering accurate timely financial reports to senior managers. But how does this add value? Senior managers are better able to make informed strategic choices about the right products and markets leading to revenue increases.
• A personal assistant is responsible for providing support services to an executive. So, how does this add value? It frees the executive from small or routine tasks, meaning that she can focus on making her business more efficient thereby lowering the cost of
• A warehouse manager is responsible for ensuring that all orders are shipped on time, and that goods are properly packaged. What value does this add? Customers are satisfied and therefore place more repeat orders, meaning that revenue increases.

Now It’s Your Turn

Start by thinking about profit and loss, regardless of your position, and question the value you add on a regular basis. Don’t assume that merely showing up for work and doing what’s expected will be enough to secure your success. With cutbacks or restructuring, you need to show that your work is well worth your compensation.

Career Success Tip:

Job security does not come from a title or position Rather it comes from the positive impact you have for your department, business unit or company. Developing an awareness and desire to help your organization run effectively as possible is key to your long-term career success. Also see Company Re-organizaton: How to Stay Employed and Don’t Get Caught Up in the Peter Principle.

Do you want to develop Career Smarts?

This post is part 2 of Crystal Davis’ guest blog based on her dissertation on Servant Leadership in a spiritual organization. Ms. Davis is passionately engaged in Servant Leadership and selfless service to the nonprofit and public sectors having served both large and small organizations throughout her career and her consulting business.

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I decided to look at self-transcendence and servant leadership behavior through the lens of Religious Science. Centers for Spiritual Living teaches a philosophy that came out of the New Thought Movement, and was started in the mid-1800s by Transcendentalists like Ralph Waldo Emerson and continued into the twentieth century with the teachings of Emmett Fox, Napoleon Hill, Emma Curtis Hopkins, and Ernest Holmes.

Centers for Spiritual Living (CSL) was founded in the early 20th century by Dr. Ernest Holmes. Holmes (1966) believed there was a thread of truth running through every great religion and philosophy and it was his desire to pluck out that thread, leaving behind all superstition, dogma, and religious opinion. Holmes (1966) taught Religious Science from his book, The Science of Mind: A Philosophy a Faith, A Way of Life. Religious Science teaches three core values; A belief in every religion and honor all paths to God; A belief that every life is sacred and valuable; and A belief that every person is on a spiritual journey which will ultimately lead to their greatest good. Centers for Spiritual Living around the world use the Science of Mind textbook written by Dr. Holmes as one of the resources for the aforementioned beliefs.

Science of Mind has influenced luminaries in the field of self-development such as Wayne Dyer, Jack Canfield, Oprah Winfrey, Michael Beckwith, and Marianne Williamson. The integrated movement has over 400 spiritual centers in 29 countries, and publishes two inspirational monthly magazines with a combined readership of 100,000.

Holmes (1966) taught that the universe is created by an Infinite Mind; therefore one should remain “open at the top”; always ready to incorporate new wisdom as it is revealed through the arts, science and religion. The western Holy Bible, along with the eastern teachings of the Tao and other sacred texts are illumined as resources for spiritual truth (Star, 2008).

Centers for Spiritual Living celebrate and welcomes diversity. It is believed that every person holds equal value in the eyes of God regardless of religion, race, gender, sexual orientation or any other worldly identification that attempts to separate people. Centers for Spiritual Living hold the vision that one day humankind will see itself as one people on one planet, living in one universe governed by one God.

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For more resources, see our Library topic Spirituality in the Workplace.

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Crystal J Davis holds a Bachelor’s degree in Journalism and Mass Communications from Kansas State University, a Masters in Human Relations from the University of Oklahoma, and will graduate with a Doctorate in Management and Organizational Leadership from University of Phoenix in December 2013.

So many messages this holiday season are around the importance of believing. I’m reminded of the classic movie The Polar Express in which one of the little boy’s messages to learn and embrace is to believe. Just this past evening I watched a Hallmark movie called The Wishing Well. It had a similar theme for the wishing well in order to work. First those making a wish must really believe in it and second it needs to be the right wish.

A few days ago when I was visioning with a colleague on a upcoming project that we are both passionate about, a beautiful cardinal kept landing on this tree just outside the window. Its bold red color against the white snow background made for a spectacular scene. What lesson does the cardinal want us to learn? Here’s what I found out.

Our hope is that as you close out the year you’ll be grateful for all your wishes come true this year. Our wish for you is that you have the faith to really believe in all of the great things for this upcoming year. Stand tall and step into this next year with confidence and nobility.

Thank you for investing your time in our blog. We hope that it’s enriched your life in some way and we thank you for enriching ours.

Many blessings to you and yours…

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For more resources, see our Library topic Spirituality in the Workplace.

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Janae Bower is an inspirational speaker, award-winning author and training consultant. She founded Finding IT, a company that specializes in personal and professional development getting to the heart of what matters most. She started Project GratOtude, a movement to increase gratitude in people’s lives.

Crystal Davis read my blog posts last year and emailed me inquiring about other resources related to Spirituality at work. She’s doing her dissertation on Servant Leadership. I’ve enjoyed exchanging ideas with her over the past year.

I invited Crystal to share some of her dissertation topic for our blog posts this month. Here is a brief summary she wrote on Servant Leadership and how she’s researching it for her dissertation.

Enjoy!

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What does self-transcendence have to do with servant leadership? This is the question that has sparked deep interest for me well over three years now. My doctorate proposal will ask this question to find out if a correlation exists between spirituality (self-transcendence) and servant leadership within an organization called Centers for Spiritual Living. There have been several other studies that used faith based organizations and these studies found mixed results. In a study conducted in two African American rural churches in North Carolina reflected concerns about the demonstration of servant leadership and the potential problems extending toward new lay leaders. The demonstration of effective servant leadership is important for new lay leaders, and the pastors of the churches should establish a training program for lay leadership. Further research could focus on the perception and practice of servant leadership in other denominations and among other ethnic groups, other characteristics of servant leadership, and the cultural, political, and social factors that influence servant leadership. My study will take these concerns to heart and look at servant leadership in another faith –based denomination. To date, no study has been done with Centers for Spiritual Living.

More attention is being devoted to the theory of servant leadership. What is Servant Leadership? It is a leadership theory coined by Robert Greenleaf in which the leader sees him/herself as a servant first and a leader second. Servant leaders put forth selfless service to the individuals of the organization with the intrinsic perspective toward self-actualization for everyone. Servant leadership possesses characteristics such as voluntary subordination, authentic self, covenantal relationship, responsible morality, transcendental spirituality, and transforming influence.

Servant Leadership should not be confused with the idea that if you are a servant leader, you will be taken advantage of. On the contrary, a servant leader can serve without being servile. Of relevance is the Servant leaders’ quality of selfless service, which is an intrinsic desire to serve, that comes from within.

When leaders are firmly grounded in servant leadership principles and are more self-transcendent (spiritual), the reputation of the organization can return multiple dividends in terms of greater investment and growth of the people. When awareness takes place in the universal human condition, it will be understood that energy unites everything, and one’s purpose will change from serving individualistic needs to serving others.

This proposed quantitative correlational research study may produce results supporting the need for organizations to employ mature self-transcendent (spiritual) leaders who employ servant leadership behavior to lead spiritual organizations. The results could aid scholars, leaders, and practitioners who engage in servant leadership behavior by revealing situatedness through which servant leadership principles can be developed, modeled, and sustained. If a relationship exists between self-transcendence and servant leadership behavior, this could determine a need for critical analysis on how servant leadership training programs can be developed administered, and sustained in various spiritual organizations.

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For more resources, see our Library topic Spirituality in the Workplace.

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Crystal J Davis holds a Bachelor’s degree in Journalism and Mass Communications from Kansas State University, a Masters in Human Relations from the University of Oklahoma, and will graduate with a Doctorate in Management and Organizational Leadership from University of Phoenix in December 2013.

Ms. Davis is passionately engaged in Servant Leadership and selfless service to the nonprofit and public sectors having served both large and small organizations throughout her career and her consulting business.

How many of you in college or graduate school had a course, or even a workshop, on managing your career? I bet not many because too many young professionals and emerging leaders come to me for coaching with all kinds of career and leadership concerns.

Career Intelligence #1 gave 20 real world practical ideas about managing one’s career . Here are 20 additional ones gleaned from a conference presentation where the audience was asked “what great advice did they received during their successful career?”

Some quoted a great boss, others a mentor or coach or professional colleague and others a family member – mother, father, sister, brother in law, even a grand mother.

Which ones can you start using right now?

1. You never get what you deserve just what you negotiate.
2. You are only valuable to a company when you add value to the company.
3. Always ask your boss what you can do to make him/her look good to their boss.
4. The day you stop managing things and start managing people you become a leader.
5. Do you think he /she (your boss) would turn down a great offer to stay and work with you?
6. The tough part is not the knowing what you must do but the doing what you know you must do.
7. Treat people well on the way up as you never know who you will when you are on the way down.
8. If you remove negativity and embarrassment from your mind, you will be much more successful.
9. Always know the difference between job monotony and job dissatisfaction before you decide to quit.
10. Check all activities to see if they are value adders or energy suckers and abandon the energy suckers.
11. Good managers don’t actually manage? They LEAD. And its corollary: It’s awfully tough to push a rope.
12. Employee is paid in two coins – by cash and by experience. Take the experience first; the cash will naturally follow.
13. You don’t have to be friends with the people you work with. You just have to get along with them enough to do your job.
14. Follow the money trail. (Translation: get aligned with the business groups who are generating revenue for the organization.
15. If you don’t quickly make decisions about the path you want to take, sooner or later, someone else makes that decision for you.
16. Accept a job because you want to work for the company, have the experience and because you agree with their values. Bosses leave.
17. You don’t have to win every argument. Even if you’re right, sometimes it’s better to have the other guy walk away thinking he is.
18. Only through failure and pain do you really grow. So don’t be afraid to take risks, make mistakes and fail…just make different ones each time.
19. If you want to be a manager, be aware that you won’t get to play with the toys anymore; you will be looking after the people that play with the toys.
20. Success is measured in different terms for each of us. It is much more important to do what makes us happy than it is to imitate someone else.

Career Success Tip:

A casual piece of friendly or professional advice, given at a time when you’re open to it and even perhaps need it, can change everything. Career intelligence is relevant no matter what your job function is or what kind of company you work for. Everyone must have career smarts to succeed in today’s workplace. Also see Keys to Career and Life Success, Five Career killers For High Achievers, What Your Career Success IQ?

Do you want to develop Career Smarts?

The holiday season is in full bloom. All the sounds and sights of the holidays are all around. Holiday music is playing and car horns are blaring at the increased traffic around the grocery and toy stores.

In this season of peace, love, family, and a little madness, I have a list of holiday wishes for you.

1. May all your projects close on time and on budget.
2. May your employees treat each other with dignity and respect.
3. May all your candidates have wonderful experience.
4. May all Performance Improvement Plans result in improved performance.
5. May there be no layoffs or terminations.
6. May the employee survey show an engaged workforce.
7. May there be no injuries.
8. May your managers show appreciation for the work of their teams.
9. May the holiday bonuses not get cut.
10. May you actually do no work during all those PTO days you planned.
11. May you start next year with a clear head and a new enthusiasm to bring any changes that need to happen in your life whether work or personal.

Happy Holidays readers.

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For more resources, See the Human Resources library.

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Sheri Mazurek is a training and human resource professional with over 16 years of management experience, and is skilled in all areas of employee management and human resource functions, with a specialty in learning and development. She is available to help you with your Human Resources and Training needs on a contract basis. For more information send an email to smazurek0615@gmail.com. Follow me on twitter @Sherimaz.

Over the Thanksgiving holiday I had an interesting discussion with a mortgage lender and an economist about the 2008 banking industry collapse. Part of the discussion was around culpability and responsibility. In another conversation that week with a management consultant friend, we shared our frustration that institutions and systems are hard to change as organizational culture and corporate norms are deeply entrenched.

While whole systems of incentives, accountability, and market demand were responsible for the global banking collapse, business ethics and corporate citizenship ultimately comes down to personal decision making. To avoid such disasters in the future, fraud and greed have to be kept at bay. Each person must know the line over which they simply will not cross.

Where’s Your Ethical Line?

When I did on-boarding in my previous job, I talked to the new hires about their personal business ethics. I told them to get clear what values and principles they simply were not willing to sacrifice for their jobs. If they weren’t clear where that line is prior to starting their job, it would only get more fuzzy and confusing once they were in it. With pressure from a boss, customer, or co-workers to perform and conform, doing the right thing becomes even more challenging.

I offer this video below with some stories of people who knew where their ethical line was and what they weren’t willing to do for money.

Take some time to think through what you are and are not willing to do to save your job, please a boss, satisfy a customer, fit into your company, or make others look good. In the end, it is only your own conscience that you have to live with every night.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nW_7BEb1VCw&feature=plcp

To learn more about aligning your values with your work, read my book “Path for Greatness”.

BUY the 10^th Anniversary edition of “Path for Greatness: Work as Spiritual Service”. Share this as a gift for a colleague, friend or family member who desires to integrate their spiritual life and their work life.

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For more resources, see our Library topic Spirituality in the Workplace.

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Linda J. Ferguson, Ph.D. is an author, coach, and seminar leader serving as a guide for your wholeness and authenticity in work and life.

Sign-Up on Linda’s website- www.lindajferguson.com for valuable tools to live and work from the heart – Transformational Empowerment _(TM)

“Like” Linda’s Fan Page – https://www.facebook.com/LindaJFerguson to get notices of these blog posts and other updates of Linda’s work.

I was once told that the first six months in an organization are the most important. Do you agree? What advice would you give someone entering a new organization?

Absolutely true! the first 6 months in a new job is your opportunity to learn, to be seen, to make a name for yourself and build your brand. This is the time when you will show the organization how right they were by hiring you.

If I were coaching someone, I would recommend that they do several things to get off to a strong start.

1. Get the lay of the land.
   It’s easier to ask “dumb” questions during the “newlywed” period. Inquire not only about the written rules, but also the unwritten rules in the organization; f find out who the key influencers are and why they are influential; and take time to observe and discover what’s really important to the organization.
2. Quickly add value.
   Assess what unique skills or talent you bring to bear to address the most critical challenges. Look for quick wins to establish credibility and respect as quickly as possible.
3. Ensure they have absolute role clarity.
   Two dangerous pitfalls are straying into someone else territory or overlooking some aspect of their responsibility.
4. Write a broad ‘100 day plan.
   Be sure you get input from your manager and even your employees. It should includes specific strategies as well as how these strategies are aligned with the department and corporate goals.

Career Success Tip:

Realize that joining a new organization requires you to quickly understand and adapt to a new culture, to new people and to a new political arena. It’s not business as usually. It’ may require you to learn new things and to do what you’ve done before in new ways. Also see Tips for Starting a New Job, Making the Right Career Moves Part #1 and Part #2.

Do you want to develop Career Smarts?

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For more resources, see our Library topic Spirituality in the Workplace.

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Janae Bower is an inspirational speaker, award-winning author and training consultant. She founded Finding IT, a company that specializes in personal and professional development getting to the heart of what matters most. She started Project GratOtude, a movement to increase gratitude in people’s lives.

News Flash:

The 19^th century paradigm of the Industrial Revolution is over.

Many people are wringing their hands about the contracting economy and the collapse of the global financial system. The solution is NOT doing more of the same or applying similar solutions to the same problem. Everything has its cycle. The old paradigm of manufacturing and production has run its course.

OK, not exactly. We will still produce things and make things. We do live in a tangible three dimensional world. How we produce is changing; we’ve entered a new era, one of Conscious Evolution and Manifesting. Do you want to learn how to make things happen in the 21^st century using radically different solutions? Then get this- it’s all about Energy. **

It used to be that we had to work harder or be more efficient to increase production. That paradigm is out of date, only most business schools won’t teach you that. The mystery schools of manifesting will help you learn new ways to be productive because they focus on Energy, the Source of all that is.

I’m not talking about wind, solar, geo-thermal, or fossil fuel type energy (though those do help support our companies and lives). I’m talking about the Energy that pulses through you and I and all that is on this planet. We are at our core simply Energy, sub-atomic forces that can destroy cities or change lives.

Energy and Manifesting

What Energy are you feeding your world today? What Energy do you bring to your work?

• Notice how you talk to people- is it with kind, joyful energy or frustrated, angry energy?
• Notice how you think of people- is it with compassion and caring or judgment and criticism?
• Notice how you prepare for a call or meeting– is it with hopefulness and positive expectation or with cynicism and doubt?
• Notice how you view your tasks- do you focus on what good you can create or worry about getting things wrong?
• Notice how you approach your work- do you visualize yourself being wildly successful or do you prepare for the worst?

All of these ways of seeing, expecting, talking, thinking set up a wave of Energy coming from you to everything and everyone around you. You affect your world by the Energy you bring. Manifesting is about how your Energy is used in the world. If you want to manifest positive outcomes, you need to bring and share positive Energy. It’s as simple as that.

You’ll turbo-charge any new technology device, software or hardware, when you understand and use your Energy more consciously. Your body is an incredible machine, your mind a powerful tool. Yet hard to master. To learn more ways to tap this Energy and build your personal mastery, sign-up to receive my framework of Transformational Empowerment found on the right side of my website – www.lindajferguson.com

Work on your thoughts, attitudes, expectations and beliefs and you have a new tool for the 21^st century. Be mindful of your Energy. Shifting your Energy from worry, doubt, anger, or fear to hope, joy, compassion and kindness is the very tool you need to create the world you want to live in.

Are you ready to step into the 21^st century and a new paradigm?

Ahoy mates, let the journey begin.

** NB: My latest book, “Staying Grounded in Shifting Sand: Awakening Soul Consciousness for the New Millennium” describes in more details the new scientific paradigm of energy and a new framework for manifesting.

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For more resources, see our Library topic Spirituality in the Workplace.

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Dr. Linda J. Ferguson is a job and life coach, seminar leader, and writer. Sign-Up on Linda’s website- www.lindajferguson.com to receive her new framework for manifesting – Transformational Empowerment.

Now available!! Linda’s new book, “Staying Grounded in Shifting Sand” – Click here to order.

“Like” Linda’s Fan Page – https://www.facebook.com/LindaJFerguson to get notices of these blog posts and other updates of Linda’s work.