5 Essential Books On Leadership

5 books on leadership you should read now (if you haven’t already).

Knowledge is power and reading books on leadership written by specialists in the field will help you develop the skills you need to become a successful manager. Everyone can benefit from leadership training whether you’re just starting out on your management journey or you need a refresher course. Here are five books to give you a different perspective on leadership and help you lead a team with confidence and ease.

The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen R. Covey

This self-help book was first published in 1989 and is one of the classic books on leadership. The three habits outlined in the book focus on self-mastery – to be proactive, begin with the end in mind and put first things first. Habits four, five and six then address interdependence to think win/win, seek first to understand and then to be understood and synergize and seven is one of renewal and continual improvement.

The Leadership Challenge, 4th Edition by James M. Kouzes and Barry Z. Posner

This leadership classic continues to be a bestseller after three editions and twenty years in print. The fourth edition has been updated to reflect relevant case studies, research and methodologies. The book’s central theme is that ‘Leadership is Everyone’s Business’. The two authors outline ‘five practices’ and ‘ten commitments’ that have been proven by hundreds of thousands of dedicated, successful leaders.

The 5 Levels of Leadership: Proven Steps to Maximize Your Potential by John C. Maxwell

One of the most established authorities on leadership writing today, John C. Maxwell speaks to over 350,000 people each year and has shared his theories on business management for over 30 years. The book outlines the five steps to leadership and how to reach the pinnacle – the ability to invest in people and inspire them. The 5 Levels of Leadership: Proven Steps to Maximize Your Potential outlines the levels which are:

1. Position – People follow because they have to.
2. Permission – People follow because they want to.
3. Production – People follow because of what you have done for the company.
4. Pinnacle – People follow because of what you have done for them personally.
5. Personhood – People follow because of who you are and what you represent.

How to Win Friends & Influence People by Dale Carnegie

One of the top-selling books on leadership of all time, How to Win Friends & Influence People has sold more than 15 million copies in all its editions. Financial success, Carnegie believed, is due 15 percent to professional knowledge and 85 percent to ‘the ability to express ideas, to assume leadership, and to arouse enthusiasm among people’. The book gives valuable tips on how to lead people and positively influence them in the workplace.

On Becoming a Leader by Warren Bennis

In On Becoming a Leader recommended by former Vice President Al Gore, management expert Warren Bennis shows how individuals develop leadership traits and how organisations can encourage or stifle potential leaders. The book profiles dynamic figures from Fortune 500 companies, the entertainment industry and political and the non profit sector to demonstrate how all leaders share distinctive characteristics.

These five books are classic leadership books that outline management principles that have stood the test of time and are essential reading for anyone wanting to develop their leadership skills. So are the attributes of a successful leader due to nature or nurture? Are leaders born or made? Whatever the case, these books on leadership will help you obtain the skills you need to become a strong, confident and decisive leader.

Cover Letter Tips

5 Cover Letter Tips To Get You That Interview

Here are five essential cover letter tips to fast-track your application to the top of the ‘yes’ pile.

Give yourself a fighting chance and improve your response rate with these cover letter tips. Sending a cover letter with your resume remains an essential step in the job application process. It doesn’t take long to tailor an application to the position you are applying for but so many employees disillusioned with the recruitment process fail to do this. Capitalise on their mistakes and put together a letter that leaves your competitors for dead.

Cover letter tips #1: Personalise your applications

When you have been searching for a job for a few weeks/months, it can be easy to turn onto auto-pilot when you’re churning out application after application. But it only takes a few seconds to personalise your letter – this can cut out the clutter and make your cover letter stand out. The letter for most applicants is the first point of contact and first impression you will make on potential employers. You can personalise your applications by:

Addressing your letter to the person looking at applications.
If you were referred by someone to the position, mentioning this in the opening line
Mentioning how you found about the job in the opening paragraph.
In the body of the letter, tailor your skills to the position advertised demonstrating why you would be a good fit for the company.
In the closing paragraph, outline why you would like to work at the company.

Cover letter tips #2: Check spelling mistakes and grammatical errors

The most important thing to check before sending out a cover letter is to make sure you have spelt the recruiter’s name correctly with the right salutation – this is one of the most commonly made mistakes. Take the time to read a cover letter carefully and if possible ask a family member or friend to proofread it for you as it’s not always easy to pick up on your mistakes. Don’t start off on the wrong foot by not proofreading your work.

Cover letter tips #3: Market yourself – self promotion is key

When putting together a cover letter, this is no time to be shy. While you don’t want to come across as bragging, you do want to demonstrate how you can be an asset to the company and contribute to their continued growth. Highlight your key achievements, skills and experience. You want to make the link between your previous work experience with real-life examples and how this is relevant to the position you are applying for.

Cover letter tips #4: Keep the design simple

The design of your cover letter also has significance. Unless you are applying for a creative role, keep it simple and professional. Use classic fonts such as Verdana and Arial in 10 or 11 point and left align your text with a standard margin size. The use of short paragraphs and white space is important to separate important points in your letter. Where possible, use bulleted lists to display information on the page.

Cover letter tips #5: Make sure you send your letter in by the due date

When you see a job that may have a lot of competition, email your cover letter as soon as possible. Some organisations inundated with applications may take off their job advertisements in just a few days. Put yourself in the running by sending your cover letter in a timely manner. However, don’t compromise a swift reply by sending a letter that has spelling mistakes and typos – make sure you proofread it carefully before emailing it.

Your cover letters with your resume are the most important job search tools to land you your dream job. The correspondence you send with your resume may be the only opportunity you have to impress your potential employer. But you don’t have to spend hours tailoring your applications. By following these simple cover letter tips, you can make sure your application stands out from the crowd and wins you that all-important interview.

5 Best Actresses

Here are five of the best actresses to appear in film. Years later their legacy lives on …

What distinguishes the best actresses of all time? It is not just purely their acting skills or their undeniable beauty. Iconic Hollywood actresses are defined by their charisma and personality and the undefinable ‘X factor’. Here are five of the most iconic actresses in the industry who have touched our hearts beyond the silver screen and are remembered both for their dramatic onscreen and off-screen lives.

Audrey Hepburn

Audrey Hepburn was born Audrey Kathleen Ruston in 1929. With her petite frame and elfin features, she was not your quintessential Hollywood actress. However, long after her death in 1993, she remains one of the best actresses of all time. The movie star appeared in classics such as Breakfast at Tiffanys, Roman Holiday and Sabrina. Hepburn remains one of few entertainers who have won Academy, Emmy, Grammy, and Tony Awards.

Katherine Hepburn

“I’m a personality as well as an actress,” Katharine Hepburn once declared. “Show me an actress who isn’t a personality, and you’ll show me a woman who isn’t a star.” The feisty actress was born in 1907 and passed away in 2003. Katherine Hepburn, a star of film, stage and television won three Academy Awards for Best Actress for movies In a Golden Pond, The Lion in Winter and Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner.

Vivian Leigh

Who could forget the English actress in the epic role of Blanche DuBois in A Streetcar Named Desire for which she won an Academy Award for Best Actress and the portrayal of southern belle Scarlett O’Hara in the iconic movie Gone with the Wind. Vivian Leigh (5 November 1913 – 8 July 1996) made fewer than a dozen movies but those two roles cemented her place in history as one of the best actresses of all time.

Marilyn Monroe

Marilyn Monroe born Norma Jeane Baker in 1926. The blonde bombshell and sex siren appeared in iconic movies such as Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, Some Like It Hot, How to Marry a Millionaire and The Seven Year Itch. The final years of her career were marred by marked by illness, personal problems, and a reputation for being unreliable and difficult to work with. The actress tragically passed away in 1962.

Elizabeth Taylor

Elizabeth Taylor was one of the stars of Hollywood’s Golden Age but her string of failed marriages was almost as notable as her long acting career. Taylor was born in 1932 and sadly died in 2011. She won two Academy Awards; one for best actress for Butterfield 8 and again for best actress for Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?. Later in life she become well known for her humanitarian work raising money for AIDS research.

There are many well known actresses today such as Nicole Kidman, Cate Blanchett, Angelina Jolie and Natalie Portman who are lauded for their acting ability but one wonders whether they will reach the heights of these five dazzling beauties. Only time will tell. Thankfully due to modern technology, we can watch the movies of these five best actresses forever immortalised in time onscreen and within our hearts.

5 Health Benefits Of Yoga

If you want to achieve peace and a great workout, yoga on down to your nearest yoga class.

Yoga is a low-impact, non-aerobic method of exercising with the classical techniques dating back more than 5,000 years. The word yoga means ‘to join or yoke together’ and it is a stretching class you can do on your own or with a group. The stretching exercises bring the mind, spirit and body together. Find out more about the physical and psychological benefits of yoga.

Weight management

Done regularly you will see the benefits of yoga on the scales. The exercise performed in conjunction with a well balanced diet can aid in weight loss, fat burning and toning the body. While not all yoga styles are aerobic, if you practice vinyasa or astanga classes, you can boost your heart rate into the aerobic range. You can also accelerate your weight loss by combining yoga with a cardio and weights program.

Increasing flexibility

Yoga promotes flexibility and suppleness of the joints. It is common knowledge that stretching keeps the body limber and yoga is a range of different stretches. You will notice as you continue doing yoga classes on a regular basis that your flexibility will increase. The benefits of yoga will include lengthening the muscles, tendons, and ligaments in your body to help you become more supple.

Increased strength

The variety of yoga poses that you do in a class uses all the different muscles in the body and helps to increase your strength level. The exercises done in yoga are designed to build up your core strength which provides a solid foundation from everything from weight training to housework. Core strength improves stabilisation and support to the spine and can relieve lower back pain, a common injury suffered by adults.

Stress management and relaxation

As well as the physical benefits, yoga promotes stress management and relaxation. A lot of people do this floor exercise purely for the psychological benefits it brings. With a growing body of research supporting yoga’s mental health benefits, psychologists are weaving the practice into their work with clients to cope with stress and anxieties, improve their personal and professional relationships and even heal emotional wounds.

Inner peace

Yoga is well documented for restoring balance and harmony. The two systems of exercise and breathing prepare the body and mind for meditation, with an approach to a quiet mind that allows silence and healing. It can take you to a place far away from the daily anxieties of work and home life. When practiced regularly, yoga can become a powerful discipline for achieving physical, mental and emotional well being.

Yoga is a fun exercise that can be done in a heated studio, outside on the grass or in the privacy of your own home regardless of your age or fitness level. The bare essentials you need are workout clothing and a mat, you don’t even require exercise shoes. So if you’re looking for a fun and social exercise program that doesn’t cost a lot but brings numerous benefits, yoga might be just what you are looking for.

Best Holiday Tips To Have The Trip Of A Lifetime

Here are five of the best holiday tips to make the most of your holiday.

Best holiday tips usually focus on saving money and penny pinching but the cheapest holiday deals are not always the recipe for a fun, memorable and stress free holiday. The key to having a fun holiday and enjoying some much-needed relaxing time is planning ahead but also allowing flexibility in your schedule to be spontaneous and impulsive. Here are five key tips to having the best time of your life on holiday.

Best holiday tips #1: Location Location Location

It is important to pick a location that will be enjoyable for everyone. If you are traveling with a young family, you may want to go to a place with a lot of local and natural attractions the children want to explore. However, if you are traveling with your partner, you may want privacy and go to a more secluded spot but if you are traveling with friends or traveling alone, you may want to go a place with more opportunities for socialising.

Best holiday tips #2: Working out a budget

Whether you’re traveling eight hours or you’re traveling to eight countries around the world, you should work out a budget you can stick to. This should factor in items such as flights, accommodation, food, entertainment, spending money, travel insurance and a contingency fund in case of an emergency. It may not be the most exciting part of planning your journey but it can avoid you landing yourself in debt on your arrival home.

Best holiday tips #3: Book in advance

If you want to find good accommodation at a fantastic price, one of the best holiday tips is to book in advance. You can also wait until the last minute as well but you are taking a risk that flights and your ideal holiday accommodation may still available. For peace of mind if a particular location or hotel is more important than potentially saving a few extra dollars, it is much better to book your accommodation ahead.

Best holiday tips #4: Do your research

To get the most of your trip, do your research and find out about the major attractions and places you can see on your holiday. With some attractions or restaurants for example, you may have to book weeks/months in advance. You may find for some destinations that it may be better to buy a city pass which may allow you to avoid queues, provides access or discounted entry to local attractions and may include public transport.

Best holiday tips #5: Don’t forget about the pets

Like popular hotels, the best pet kennels can get booked out very quickly at peak periods of the year such as the Christmas holidays. When planning your holiday, you also need to book your pet into a kennel months ahead to ensure they are well looked after when you are away. If you are planning to have a family member, neighbour or friends look after your pet, ask them well in advance to make sure they are available.

Don’t come home back disappointed because you have missed out on seeing major attractions, there are no rooms available in your favourite hotel or you can’t visit a restaurant because it is booked out in months in advance. Planning your trip is half the fun of traveling. It’s tempting to play it by ear when organising travel but a little pre-planning goes a long way with these best holiday tips to help you have a relaxing holiday.

5 Work Life Balance Tips And Techniques

Become the director of your own life with these work life balance tips.

Following up on our article Achieving a Work Life Balance, here are some further work life balance tips to be able to organise your day better and have time for the more fun things in life like seeing friends and family. An ideal day should consist of eight hours work, eight hours play and eight hours sleep but how many of us achieve this? Make yourself a priority with these five suggestions to bring more balance into your day.

Set aside some ‘me’ time

It’s important to set some ‘me time’ aside in your day to do something you enjoy. It doesn’t have to be extravagant or cost any money. It could be as simple as taking a long soak in the bath or reading a book. In a world full of never-ending chores or work tasks, it’s often difficult to carve out quality moments to spend by yourself. This time allows you to regroup and feel rejuvenated again with this work life balance tip.

Leave work stress at work

If you are working in a toxic environment, it is healthy to release work stress by venting to other colleagues you trust or to your partner when you arrive home. It’s important for you to feel validated by others. However, try to keep this negativity to a minimum. When you are away from work and with people who love and care for you, the last thing you want to do is take your job frustrations out on your family and friends.

Learn how to say no

In both your personal or professional life, it’s important to say ‘no’ to people and learn how to prioritise your time. It’s easy to become the go-to person at work for those extra tasks people don’t want to do or left alone doing everyone’s dishes when you get home at night. Whether you are the CEO, a receptionist or stay at home dad, don’t be afraid to assert yourself and let people know that your time is also important.

Set personal boundaries

By setting personal boundaries, you will find that you have more spare time available and can have more of a work life balance. When at work, avoid time wasting tasks like checking your social media accounts, reading news sites and answering personal emails or phone calls. By restricting yourself to these activities on your breaks, this gives you more time to finish your work by a reasonable hour and have more leisure time.

Leave the technology at home

With portable devices such as mobile phones, tablets and netbooks allowing people to access the internet when they are out and about, lying in bed or on holidays, this has severely impacted on many people having a work life balance. Tips on bringing back the harmony can mean simply leaving the technology at home or disabling internet access from your mobile so there is no possible way you can check your email.

Striking a balance between work and play is becoming even tougher in these technological times where is a blurring division between the two. More people are bringing work home via portable devices. But a lack of balance can not only affect your productivity at work, it can also affect your relationships outside of the workplace. Take heed of these work life balance tips and you can bring more equilibrium to your day.

7 Common Job Interview Questions

Preparation is the key – nail your job interview with these common questions.

There are common job interview questions that regardless of job position or industry, recruiters always seem to ask. You do not want to sound like you have rehearsed your answer or sound unnatural but you do want to be prepared for any possible interview questions. This is your opportunity to show why you are the perfect candidate, demonstrate your interest in the role and the company and what value you can bring.

Tell me about yourself

This question is often asked first as an icebreaker to ease the tension between the interviewee and the interviewer. Don’t just give people a rundown of your resume – this is your chance to show your personality. Tell them your USP (unique selling proposition) and what sets you apart from the other candidates and why they should hire you for the position. You are giving them an overview of who you are, professionally speaking.

What do you know about this company?

It is very easy for a prospective client to research a company online and there is little excuse for not being able to answer this question. As well as looking at their website, the products and services they offer, the ‘About us’ page and media releases, add yourself to their social networking accounts and find out what they are chatting about. Demonstrate your understanding of the role and how it fits in with the organisation and industry.

What are your strengths and weaknesses?

This is one of the more common job interview questions and this is a chance for you to shine and really talk up your strengths. Try and link them to an actual real-life example of work you have done in previous positions. With weaknesses, try and make them into a positive and show what you have learnt. For example, you can say that you’re a perfectionist but you have learnt that you can’t hold onto tasks for too long.

Describe a time when you were faced with a difficult situation and how you handled it

These types of questions are behavioural questions and you may be asked different variations. These are very tricky and are designed to catch the interviewee out so be prepared for them. Try to present a professional challenge that places you in a positive light and one that you successfully resolved. The best way to approach these questions is by using the STAR method which is:

S – Situation, background set the scene

T – Task or Target, specifics of what’s required, when, where, who

A – Action, what you did, skills used, behaviours, characteristics

R – Result – the outcome, what happened

Where do you see yourself in five years?

This where you can show your commitment to the company and that you want to have a long term future with them. Most companies don’t want to invest in training and development if an employee is planning to leave within the first two years. Find a balance between being realistic about your career goals and being overly-ambitious and coming across as a ‘know-it-all’. When answering this question, keep it work-related.

Why did you leave your last job?

As tempting as it may be to blurt out that you left because of personality conflicts with the boss, this is no time for over-sharing. Respond with a positive answer such as looking for a new challenge, a career advancement or increased responsibility. If you were fired or demoted at your last job, try and put a positive spin on it and be honest about what happened but explain how and what you have learnt from the experience.

Do you have any questions for me?

This is another opportunity for you to demonstrate that your passion for the role and company. The best questions will be a mix of your research and questions based on what was discussed in the interview. Good questions to ask are about a company’s future direction, career opportunities etc. Close the discussion by asking the next step in the interview process will be and when you can expect to hear from them.

If you feel uneasy about the question you are being asked, you can choose to terminate the interview. Remember you are interviewing the company representative as much as they are interviewing you – fitting into the company culture is more important than the actual job itself. These are just a few of the common interview questions but also think about specific questions you may be asked about your particular job role or industry.

5 Home Improvement Tips

Take the headache out of DIY jobs around the house with these home improvement tips.

Renovating looks so easy on lifestyle shows with experts giving home improvement tips but it’s not as straightforward as it may look. Enhancing the look and feel of your home can range from cosmetic changes such as painting and installing new flooring to major structural work like knocking down walls. Here are five tips to keep your renovation on track and within budget, keeping your sanity in the process.

Work out a logical order

If you are doing some renovations around the house, one of the best home improvement tips is to work out the logical order of how the work needs to be done that makes best sense to you, generally by room. For example if you are replacing your flooring and interior painting, you may want to paint your walls and ceilings so the paint doesn’t drip onto your new floor. It may depend on your personal or contractors’ preference.

Draw up a realistic budget

As renovators say, you draw up a budget and then double it straight away. If you haven’t worked out a workable budget or what you want your maximum costs to be, then you’re behind the eight-ball from the start. Once you have put together a budget, you need to constantly monitor it to make sure costs are not escalating. There will always be hidden expenses, make sure to cost in a contingency for home renos.

Plan twice, renovate once

Think about how much time and money you want to spend on doing up your home. It may be false economy to use cheap fixtures and fittings that you have to replace in a few years rather than go for a high-quality finish and premium materials that will last you longer. In addition, be mindful of overcapitalising – speak to local real estate agents and ask whether your planned renovation may exceed the value it adds to your home.

Hire contractors you can trust

The best tradies are inundated with work and don’t need to advertise their services. An ideal way to find a reputable contractor is to ask for referrals through friends or family. If you have just purchased a home, you can ask your real estate for local recommendations. Look at examples of their work if possible. If you don’t feel comfortable, don’t hire a contractor even if they have come in with the cheapest quote.

Staying within character

Your home is your castle and you can decorate and renovate it anyway you want. Keep in mind however when it comes to selling, if the houses around you are Federation-style houses, buyers may not appreciate the modern MacMansion you have built. In addition, when you renovate a property, it should be sympathetic to the original building or you may devalue your property. The money you spend should add to your investment.

Interior design may range from adding little styling touches here and there to major renovation works such remodelling bathrooms but be careful not to overcapitalise. You may love your renovations but when it comes to selling, they may even detract from the worth. However, with a little bit of pre-planning and taking home improvement tips from the experts, you can add value to your house and make into a home you love.