Does anyone understand you?

As you watch news reports about Iraq or Afghanistan, think about this: how hard it is for our military to communicate with the locals? Then think about this: when you're trying to communicate, does your audience have as much difficulty as the Afghans and Iraqis?

Dennis M. Murphy, director of the Information in Warfare Group at the Center for Strategic Leadership, US Army War College, has written a rather academic piece about this, but we can bring his insights into our own presentations at work, before the PTA, wherever. He writes:

The difficulty with cultural understanding is that culture is, by its very nature, a local phenomenon. As MacNulty notes:

The society in which we live—in this context not the national culture . . . but the fairly small area in which we grow up . . . results in different culture, values, beliefs, religion, and views about money, work, marriage, gender roles, and so on.

Neighborhoods take on their own personalities, driven by such considerations as socio-economic factors and ethnic and racial identity. Value sets are different among communities that form the integrated society of a large US city.19 Transfer this reality to a foreign country where the US military is conducting operations. It should not be difficult to understand how challenging it is to influence perceptions among audiences with a “one-size-fits all” set of actions and messages.

Imagine yourself giving a presentation at work. You look at your audience. Each one of those people out there brings his or her own culture to the room, and they're hearing you differently. The finance guy isn't going to hear the same thing the IT guy hears.

Businesses segment their customers on the basis of gender, age, geography, previous purchase history, and on and on. Perhaps before we create that first brilliant PowerPoint slide, we should segment our audience.

Murphy notes that studying a language can help officers understand the local culture better, and that's always our tip No. 1: what jargon are you spouting, and do your listeners understand it? What language do they speak?

(Thanks, Rudy)

Things that shouldn't be on a resume

Investopedia lists some resume no-no's:

References
Listing your references on the resume is a definite no-no. References should always appear on a separate page, and should only be produced when asked for. Also, be sure to delete the "References: Available Upon Request" line. It's understood that you will, so save some space and your potential employer's time.

Full Sentences
The headhunter has likely received dozens if not hundreds of applications -- help them out! Your resume should be short and sweet and bulleted. You aren't writing a novel, you are trying to catch a skimming employer's eye and prove you are worth a second look -- and an interview.

Just words
One of the worst things you can do on a resume is be vague. Don't just list your accomplishments in a general way -- have the quantitative data to back it up. If you exceeded a goal, by how much did you exceed it? If you created and distributed company performance reports, how many did you do? Adding numbers concretizes your accomplishments and paints a better picture of what you actually did. Also, make sure you are answering the "how" question. If you completed five projects this year instead of the expected four, how did you do it?

The Words "Duties" or "Responsibilities"
When you are writing your current or former job description, focus on your accomplishments, not what you had to do. As an alternative to "duties" or "responsibilities," flip your tasks into achievements. For example, instead of being "responsible for the sales team," consider "directed the sales team to beat their repeat client objective by 10%" -- remember that number thing!

An Objective
For the most part, objectives sound insincere and, worse, can limit your options. Let your cover letter do the talking when it comes to why you want that particular job. And remember, each cover letter and resume should be individually tailored to a specific job posting -- not just a specific field. Taking an interest in the specifics of the job makes you look professional and focused and not like you are mass-emailing anyone who might hire you.

An Unprofessional Email Address
In a world where email is free, and most of us have multiple addresses, make the effort to have a professional email address. Keep it simple -- using your name is best. Just make sure you leave the sparklebaby@hellokitty.com for personal use. One more tip? Don't use your current work email unless you are self-employed.

More at the link.

Overcoming stage fright

The fear of giving a speech in public is the greatest of our fears, they say. Here's a way to cope, from J.K. Rowling, author of the best-selling Harry Potter book series, in her commencement address at the Annual Meeting of the Harvard Alumni Association in June 2008:

"Delivering a commencement address is a great responsibility; or so I thought until I cast my mind back to my own graduation. The commencement speaker that day was the distinguished British philosopher Baroness Mary Warnock. Reflecting on her speech has helped me enormously in writing this one, because it turns out that I can’t remember a single word she said. This liberating discovery enables me to proceed without any fear that I might inadvertently influence you to abandon promising careers in business, the law or politics for the giddy delights of becoming a gay wizard.

"You see? If all you remember in years to come is the ‘gay wizard’ joke, I’ve come out ahead of Baroness Mary Warnock. Achievable goals: the first step to self improvement."

Forget about imagining the audience members sitting in their underwear. Just realize they won't remember a thing you say.