Monday, May 30, 2011

Better Writing from Hemingway

These are five rules for writing from Ernest Hemingway, which I like and recommend for use in your communications. Definitely try to incorporate them into your writing, especially being short and positive.

Tuesday, May 17, 2011

Soft skills are important to MBAs

Business schools are starting to understand that those soft skills are important to succeed in business. It’s a response to various companies interviewing and hiring based on strong soft skills, which seem to become more important all the time.

Work on your soft skills if you want to advance in management at all. It might be more important than an MBA.

Wednesday, May 11, 2011

Networking and Connections

This quote says it all:

connections

It’s from an article on the 9/11 memorial and how an algorithm was used to inscribe the names in particular places.

That could easily be applied to your career as well. The connections you have, with people that know you, respect you, like your work, like you, etc. are the most important things you have.

Your skills matter, but the skills help build those connections.

Learn to network.

Friday, May 6, 2011

Get Your Manager Involved

I’ve always tried to make sure that I kept my manager informed of things I thought were important. However I hadn’t thought of getting them to attend local events with me.

This blog from Roy Ernest has an interesting idea, invite them to you user group. They’ll learn more about SQL Server, see your contributions, and maybe sponsor you to attend a conference.

A good idea, and worth trying if you have a manager that’s at all interested in the technology and you have some sessions that aren’t too complex.