Mike Lipkin: How To Become a One-Percenter so you can inspire the other 99%

Since January 1 2010, I've worked with almost 50 000 people from over 100 companies around the world. The top one percent of them are literally amazing. I call them "One-Percenters". They do things others believe are impossible and that's how they inspire others to do more. I've discovered that they have ten traits in common...
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The Fourth Quality: They are the Best at What They Do

They are highly skilled.
They know their strength and they play from it.
They also constantly upgrade their skills.
They love to learn and grow.
They are the standards of excellence.

Now, please take your time and go through these next five steps. Be clear and specific.

1. How can you become the best in your field?
• What's important to you in your work/career/job?
• What are the expects you need to focus on? Remember... You Get What You Focus On
2. What’s your “Personal Genius”?
• I invite you to awaken your genius potential. Discover it!
3. How are you developing it?
• Practice, practice and practice. Use it! 
• "Practice so much they think you are lucky" ~ Kit Grant. Getting good at anything seldom occurs until you make the decision to get better. The old saying "practice makes perfect" is a bit misleading and should actually say, "Perfect practice makes perfect." The more you do something correctly, the better your skill level. In order to get much better, you'll usually discover it takes a bit of work — not an overbearing amount, but just doing it.
4. How are you turning your Personal Genius into a unique “Personal Value Proposition”?
• What is your brand? How you position yourself? 
5. How are you benchmarking yourself as a standard of excellence?
• You have to be able to compare with other people.

"The most important thing in communication is to hear what isn’t being said." ~ Tony Robbins

Top Ten Qualities to be Successful

The qualities that are being highlighted in this blog are extremely relevant not only for internationally trained professionals trying to make their way in Canada. These traits are fundamental for any professional trying to succeed in this new interconnected world. Technology and globalization have changed the landscape of competitiveness and mastering Lipkin's qualities posted by Danny will help us differentiate ourselves and take a privileged position in the workplace.

The Third Quality: They are Proud of Their Differences

They understand the power of perspective.
They call themselves out.
They relish their diversity.
They demonstrate their innovation and creativity.
They see things from an alter-nate point of view.

This quality is a critical one! Don't minimize your qualifications. Your advantage is your perspective! Bring these different points of view to your advantage. Now, please take your time and go through these next five steps. Be clear and specific.

1. Do you truly understand the challenges facing Canadian Employers?
• Read the post News You Can Use - Immigration becoming increasingly important for more info on HR realities in the Canadian workplace 
2. How are you using the power of your differences?
• Demonstrate the value that you bring.
3. How are you turning your differences into competitive advantages?
• How are you going to position yourself? 
4. How are you demonstrating your innovation and creativity?
• Realize how you can bring value.
5. How are you helping others see things from a different point of view?
• Did you think about that before?

“To understand a country, you need to be a part of it, think of its culture, think of the opportunities and challenges it will present, and also think of your contribution, because you too can help by building a ‘better you’ through your immigration process.” ~ Excerpted from Immigrant Women’s Health Promotion Project – A Guide to Prospective New Immigrants to Canada

2010 FIFA World Cup & the ‘No Canadian Experience’ Myth

Hope you are enjoying the last games in the FIFA World Cup as much as I do. This championship it was so unexpected of the direct games results as well as the aftermath... I came across this below article, which I found very creative and thoughtful through the interesting association made between IEPs and  the 2010 World Cup Soccer phenomenon happening in South Africa.

Daisy Wright is known for the passion she has for Internationally-Educated Professionals who face numerous challenges in getting that proverbial foot-in-the-door job opportunity, and that passion led to the birth of her book  No Canadian Experience, eh?


In this article, Daisy puts the spotlight on the challenges IEPs face when they begin their job search, after arriving here with great expectations. Read the entire post at Career Musings

"Success is no accident. It is hard work, perseverance, learning, studying, sacrifice and most of all, love of what you are doing or learning to do." ~ Pele

News You Can Use - Immigration becoming increasingly important

  These materials will give you a piece of the "Canadian flavour" about the current trends in the Canadian society towards more effective HR practices. I hope that will also help you be better prepared for your journey as an IEP in Canada. I encourage you to check them out.


ALLIES (Assisting Local Leaders with Immigrant Employment Strategies) is a project jointly funded by Maytree and The J.W. McConnell Family Foundation. ALLIES provides funding, information, networks and technical expertise to Canadian cities so that they can successfully adapt and implement local ideas for skilled immigrants to find suitable employment.


Resources from the 2010 ALLIES Learning Exchange: Putting Ideas into Action are now available on the 2010 Learning Exchange presentation page. These include a summary report of the proceedings, audio files and slide presentations from the main plenary sessions and workshops along with a photo gallery. 


Are you really prepared to come to Canada? I would like to suggest you to review these materials by clicking the above link. You can  find out what are the greatest difficulties faced by immigrants, and... prepare! It's not a surprise that language and literacy are playing a major role in adapting to the Canadian workplace. And, most important... it is strongly correlated with your future personal income.

* For more info: Don Drummond – Changing Face of the Canadian Workplace

I thought you might find interesting to watch this video "Finding Talent" from the cultural competence "recruiting" series, a  dramatic television style video, where we come face to face with the challenges faced by an immigrant job seeker on the one hand, and those faced by a medium sized employer. 

As well, Maximizing Skilled Immigrant Talent video focuses on how cultural differences can impact team dynamics. I encourage you to check it out.

All the best and be happy!

“The golden opportunity you are seeking is in yourself. It is not in your environment; it is not in luck or chance, or the help of others; it is in yourself alone.” ~ Orison Swett Marden

Have a Fantastic and Happy Canada Day!

Do you ever feel different than everyone else or do you ever think someone else is ‘Different’ than what they should be?

Click the picture to watch this inspiring 3 minute video.

The Second Quality: They are Optimistic

They always expect the best outcome out of every situation. 
Even when they don’t get what they want, they don’t regard it as a failure. 
They recover quickly from setbacks and mistakes. 
They never see a situation as permanent. 
They see the world as supportive.

Now, please take your time and go through these next five steps. Be clear and specific.

1. How can you consistently focus on success?
• You need to set very clear goals. Begin with the end in mind. Be very clear on your desired outcomes! Use an effective goal setting strategy. I use the "SMART" one. Which one you use?
• Do you ever rehearse for your success? Create a Winner's mind set today!
• Combine positive affirmations and creative visualizations of success before taking on any task or project. It works for Olympic athletes, so why not use it for the "competitive events" in your life?
2. How are you learning from every experience?
• Bitter or better?
3. How can you expand your resilience?
• How do you manage your ability to come back?
4. How do you stay positive in the face of setbacks?
• How do you react?
• I have in my office posted Tom Hopkins' "The Champion Creed":
• "I am not judged by the number of times I fail, but by the number of times I succeed. And the number of times I succeed is in direct proportion to the number of times I can fail and keep trying."  Every time I'm going through some demanding stuff, I look up to this creed, calm down and smile.
5. Who is in your network to help you win?
• Whom do you call first?

"Before anything else, preparation is the key to success." ~ Alexander Graham Bell

Top 5 questions HR professionals ask about resumes of internationally qualified professionals (and answers to them!)

Thought you might find this recent article related to our blog topic useful.
Click the below link:
Top 5 questions HR professionals ask about resumes of internationally qualified professionals (and answers to them!)

Welcome to Canada!

Like You, I came to Canada with my family and with the cultural values from my country of origin, my hopes and my dreams. Same as You, I asked myself: "Is this the right time to be here? Am I doing the right thing? How can I connect with the right people to advance my career and to make friends?"

Newcomers have many challenges to face when they try to find employment in Canada. The impact of cultural differences in recruiting and the misunderstandings can lead immigrants to be unsuccessful in their job search for reasons unrelated to their ability to perform the job in question. One of the biggest challenges is the fact that the majority of the jobs are filled through internal posting and internal referrals. All these are a real issue!


My friends and I, are willing to guide you to become better prepared to overcome the adaptation challenges in Canada, and to achieve your goals. Can you imagine how is it when you feel confident and prepared because you have the "tools"?


I remember, it took me a few months, maybe more than that, to understand the meaning of "Don't take it personally!" in the Canadian reality. Then, I learned about how to become a better communicator by being assertive, and not appearing aggressive when communicating with others. Later on, I learned about the "wrap your feedback in four-layers of paper" concept, and I noticed amazing results when I applied it in my communication . And so on... I became a student of people, psychology, management and change.


Today, I am serving my community... in ways that reflect my commitment to co-workers, customers, and friends; and show my appreciation for the help and support they and the community have given me. My objective is to help, encourage and inspire others to succeed in their undertaking! 

You are in Canada by the "power of your choice", and you have the power to choose whatever your heart wants in Canada. You can choose to continue to work in your field or you can follow some other old or new dream and make it come through. YOU choose what to focus on, and you are what you think about yourself. Your beliefs about the world, make your reality. Your words are your truth.

Choose to become highly successful IEP!!
I recommend you don't skip any of the steps presented here. Each of the steps is essential to developing an action plan that works.During our time together today, naturally, you'll begin experiencing excitement about what the future holds for you as you begin to understand how easily leverageable this information is for you.

Have fun and be happy now! See you next week.
Daniel

"No matter what situation you are in right now, there is a purpose to that situation…. By working with the specific conditions in front of you, you will begin to discover things about yourself that will give you clues to the next step. Your job will be to look, listen, feel, choose, and act." ~ Carol Adrienne

Links:
Failure to tap into immigrants' skills costs billions
Going to Canada
www.canadianimmigrant.ca
Working in Canada
Professional Networks for Immigrants
http://www.arec.ca/links/

http://www.parents-handbook.com/
http://www.live-your-dreams.biz/
http://www.mikelipkin.com/
http://dorin-radu.blogspot.com/
http://mihaescu.blogspot.com/