Interviews with Executives

Career Advancement – How Louis Quadrupled His Income

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career advancement

Mastering soft skills is critical to your career advancement.   Louis Johnston, one of our executive authors, agrees.  He shared in this interview how mastering certain soft skills helped him skyrocket his career and quadruple his compensation.

Louis started as an Online Marketing Associate, 10 years ago.  He has since been promoted to Manager, Director, Senior Director, and now Head of Growth. This may sound like a straight-forward success story.  It is not.  He didn’t just happen to become super successful by working hard or hitting all his marketing numbers.  On the contrary, he was hitting his numbers, but not getting much credit for it.  Louis was stuck at the same level for awhile. ...  read more

5 Stress Management Techniques for Successful Executives

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stress management techniques

Stress can be a killer to your self confidence and productivity.   Even the most accomplished executives must learn how to manage stress in order to be effective all the time.    When you are not stressed, you can be at the top of the game.   However, when destructive stress sets in, it can suck up all your energy and render you sub-optimal.  This is why it’s important to learn and practice stress management techniques early in your career.  Stress will only increase as you climb the career ladder. ...  read more

Negotiating Job Offer – What 70% of People Fail to Do

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salary negotiations

In part 1 of our talk with Executive Author, Jane Lin, we discussed the Best Secret to Finding Your Dream Job.  Assuming you have a job offer, now what?  Should you negotiate?

We will have on average seven jobs in our life time.  Knowing how to negotiate job offers and initial salary at each new job can means the difference in ten of thousands of dollars in pay and give you a chance to impress our employer before we even start! ...  read more

Best Secret to Finding Your Dream Job

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no-limits

Do you want to find any job or your dream job?  The focus of this post and podcast is for all those who want the latter – a dream job!  Finding any job requires many of the same things – a great resume, good interview and networking skills, and a relentless effort to keep applying.  However, there is one difference in finding a dream job – a secret shared by Jane Lin, our newest Executive Author to the Soft Skills Gym. ...  read more

A Necessary Skill For Every Senior Executive

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senior executive

What skill does every senior executive has in common?

  • Is it an MBA?  No.  You do not need an MBA to succeed!
  • Is it an ability to achieve financial results?  maybe.  Achieving measurable results can always help, but this article is not about that
  • Is it ability to present well? Not always.  Not all executive are good at presentations, surprisingly

So what is the one skill that every successful senior executive has?  Listen to this 9 minute candidate conversation with Helena Light to find out.  I was even surprised at what she said and how executives practiced this skill every day.  You can also read the Audio Transcription of Our Conversation below ...  read more

How to Keep Your Job During Massive Layoffs

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how to keep your job

Are you worried about keeping your job? Is your company announcing layoffs?  If so, you need to listen to the recording below.

It is my distinct pleasure to introduce a new Executive Author, Helena Light, to our site.  Helena has been a friend and neighbor of mine for the last 10+ years.  She is also the Partner and COO of a small start up company in the financial industry.  She has over 30 years of experience, and is one of the most humble, personable executives I have ever met.  I am truly blessed to have Helena in my life. ...  read more

Dealing with a Difficult Boss – Lynn Marie’s Story

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Dealing with a difficult boss is always a sensitive topic.  We don’t always know if we should say anything, or how we should go about addressing our issues with them.  This is why I am excited to introduce another candid conversation with one of our Executive Authors, Lynn Marie Auzenne.

In this recording, we discussed Lynn Marie’s first business job.  Her boss was mysteriously difficult, and we’ll see what she did in response: ...  read more