Welcome to Cheat Sheets

A resume is the most important document a candidate submits when they are applying for a job. It lays out your experiences, qualifications and gives an overall sense of who you are as a person to a hiring manager. This sounds scary, but by eliminating simple mistakes you can make sure your resume gets through…

For young professionals, communicating over email is a constant struggle. Is your tone being well received? Did you use too many exclamation points? Was there a certain faux pas you committed without realizing it? These questions are universal. A study by RescueTime.com found that 75% of workers have never spoken to colleagues about professionalism over…

Since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, companies have been increasingly moving to a virtual work environment. According to internal company data, Zoom, the most popular video conferencing tool, grew from 10 million daily meeting participants in 2019 to 300 million daily meeting participants by April 2020, with that number expected to continue to increase.…

Every manager will be relied upon to effectively delegate tasks to his/her team members. The manager has the authority to delegate tasks, however in many cases, especially for new managers, it can be challenging asking another person to complete a task based solely because of your management position/authority. The following steps can be used to…

Applying to jobs is difficult. When you’re trying to separate yourself from a pool of candidates, and there is an online application that only asks for education, work experience, and a resume, it’s hard to differentiate yourself. That is where the cover letter can play a significant role in showcasing your skills, accomplishments, and overall…

The first step in launching a successful career is finding the right company to build a foundation with. This can be increasingly difficult with many company websites preaching similar values, however steps are outlined below on how to truly understand the organizational culture. According to an academic research article assessing person and organizational fit, a…

Relationship-building is a key characteristic of many successful teams and organizations. As a new team leader, it can be difficult to balance the professional and personal nature of relationships within the workplace. This can be increasingly difficult if you are a new team leader lacking experience, recently promoted to supervise former coworkers, or in charge…

One of the daily challenges of being a team leader is to keep employees motivated and focused on being productive and working efficiently. Understanding your team members and what motivates them will lead to inspired work and help avoid carelessness and fatigue. According to the American Chemical Society, research suggests that humans are motivated by…

Congratulations! You’ve just been promoted to a new management position and are ready to display your leadership potential. If this is your first leadership role, it can be unsettling having a completely different set of job responsibilities and working with a completely new team. Here are some tips to help you succeed in your first…

Establishing goals provides clarity and a method to track progress. According to the academic article New Directions in Goal-Setting Theory by Edwin Locke and Gary Latham, higher or more aspirational goals leads to higher task performance and a greater ability to attain set goal. The challenge lies within how to set goals that are attainable,…

There are multiple times when working on a project or on a team that you reach a point and need assistance. This can be due to a lack of information, lack of experience, needing a required approval authority, or uncertainty on how to continue. In order to progress, we must approach the team leader for…

Sitting across the table from another co-worker having to deliver negative feedback on their work performance is a stressful task. Employees spend a majority of their day taking pride in the work they are performing, and as a supervisor it is never easy communicating to that employee that their work is insufficient. According to an…

Interviews are stressful. Whether it’s an internal interview with the company you’ve worked for a long time, or an interview with a new company that you’re trying to get hired, interviews are the gateway to development and growth. It’s a mutually difficult process for the interviewer and the interviewee, the company is considering making a…

In my conversations with peers and colleagues, there has been a common stressor on how to effectively ask for a raise from their manager. Justified or not, it falls onto the single employee to approach the manager and have the conversation about a salary increase. Here are a few key tips to keep in mind…

No matter the position, company, or industry, leaders will encounter stress. While we may not be able to control the initiators of stress, or the stressors, leaders can control how we react too and manage these situations. According to an academic journal article on coping with stress by Peggy Thoits, coping strategies start with either…

When working on a team, it is inevitable that you may encounter tension amongst team members or ideas. While the leader may not be directly involved in tension, it is their responsibility to quickly address the tension and ensure that the conflict is not detrimental to the team or productivity. According to the Harvard Business…

The need to better understand a new industry applies to both aspiring career switchers and professionals working on a new project outside of their area of expertise. No matter the level of experience, a quick background and understanding of the size of the industry, the key competitors, and cyclical trends will prepare you to be…

Inc. Magazine reports that Doodle’s 2019 State of Meeting study revealed that in 2019 alone poorly organized meeting cost U.S. organizations $399 billion  and $58 billion in the U.K. This is almost half a trillion dollars for these two countries alone Use these steps to keep the meetings you run from falling into these costly traps.…

No matter how great of a candidate you are, everyone is nervous for job interviews. It is a natural reaction to be anxious when interviewing. In fact, a study performed by Harris Interactive for Everest College found that 92% of Americans are afraid of at least one thing in an interview. If you are one…