News You Can Use - Mike Lipkin's Top 50 Insights

Read and listen to Mike Lipkin's Top 50 Insights from the PowerWithin Entrepreneurs & Business Leaders Conference on September 23, 2010:

Read Insights and Listen to Insights

How can you use these insights?

News You Can Use - IWES program

The Integrated Work Experience Strategy (IWES) is a new bridge-to-work program being piloted in the Greater Toronto Area under the Information and Communications Technology Council's (ICTC) Immigration Initiatives, in partnership with JVS Toronto.

It prepares internationally educated professionals (IEPs) for employment in Canada's information and communications technology (ICT) sector. IWES is funded by the Government of Ontario and the Government of Canada. We are currently accepting applications for INTAKE 4 in Markham, Ontario.

Only 16 participants will be accepted into the program in this cycle.

Don't delay -- apply by December 2, 2010!

How to apply: Online at www.ictc-ctic.ca.

Click on Immigration Initiatives, scroll down to Integrated Work Experience Strategy Program and choose "About IWES". Click on the "How to Apply as an IEP" button and complete the online form.


Click here for flyer.

Communication X 3!

Last week I participated at a presentation organized by the Association of Romanian Engineers in Canada. The topic was "Understanding Project Management", and the presenter Mr. Rishi Kumar. P.Eng., PMP, CMC was very eloquent in pointing out that the most important factor in the success or failure of a project is Communication. Based on his experience, the interpersonal skills, contracting and negotiation skills are playing the biggest role.


Communication, communication and more communication! Is communication used only in project management? Of course, not! However, everything is project management, as well as everything is... negotiation, as well as we all are in sales! Even if you think you're not :). 
We are first and foremost social beings. And most on the conversations in the workplace are social. Hi, how are you? How was your weekend? How was in vacation? How is your son? etc.
Great social interaction prepares the platform on which work is built. 
So, how we can get better?


Here are a few initial steps ideas:
1. Before coming to Canada improve your English speaking skills.
 - Test Your English
- Learn Business English
- 11 RULES OF WRITING
2. Once you're here, join a Toastmasters International club.
 - Why to join? Read this and then go Find Meeting Locations near to your area.
3. Use different resources like these:
 - FREE Communispond Podcast Library
 - Communication skills


...and be prepared for more. 
Enjoy and be happy now!


"The formulation of the problem is often more essential than its solution." ~ Albert Einstein

Play well

Image via Wikipedia

Being a kid, I didn’t have computer and the internet; I’ve got a LEGO brick game as present. I was amazed about the unlimited possibilities to combine the blocks, and quickly realized that if I put them together using two knobs I get a stronger connection than using one knob and one hole. Using more knobs it allows building a very strong structure.

It’s starting with some simple forms, and then only your imagination can limit it. Everything you need you already have. It’s simple. Great toys!

The name LEGO is formed from the Danish words "LEgGOdt" ("play well"). In Latin the word means "I study", "I put together".

For some years I was using the LEGO logo for my journey in life;

LEGO = Learn with Enthusiasm and GO!

To achieve something, I had to learn first about the subject, but only when I put enthusiasm in learning I had great results. After that, when I choose to start and do it right away, the results were exactly as in my imagination. During the process I realized that somehow the things started to work in my favour. 

How do you achieve your outcomes?


"I find the great thing in this world is not so much where we stand, as in what direction we are moving." ~ Oliver Wendell Holmes

News You Can Use - "Growing Pains"

After navigating through the global recession in relatively good shape and enjoying a strong bounceback in the early stages of recovery, Canada’s economy appears to be transitioning to a relatively subdued rate of expansion of about 2%.
Read more here.

Today is Gateway Day by Mike Lipkin

 Welcome back, it’s time to get working. July and August are just distant memories but September is here and it’s now. So are you recharged? Are you regenerated? Are you ready to rock your world? Because that’s what it’s going to take...
» Watch the video
» Listen to the podcast
» Read Mike’s new insights 

What you focusing on?

 As I mentioned before, the intention of these posts is to create a conversation between us and to support you in being successfully accommodated to the Canadian workplace and society. Primarily, to support you in becoming a highly successful IEP.

Each week I will select one or more topics related to the exercises proposed under each main quality of our topic and share with you some experiences about the way that my friends or myself went through something like this.

Just goggle "achieve balance" and you will get millions of hits. We hear a lot about the need of balance in our lives, between work and personal life, etc. On many sites you will get recipes about how to achieve it. Personally, I believe that maintaining balance in our daily life is impossible. I can agree with the concept of ecological balance in nature - as a whole, however I like to see it from the perspective of energy. Energy is always moving based on our focus. So, where are you moving your energy? It is your work? It is your family? By changing your focus, you enable an instant change in how you feel, you can change your emotional state. Are you stressed? If you are stressed, then this is a result of where you're putting your focus. 


Remember: Whatever you focus on becomes your reality! (Believe it or not!) In fact, everything you do is a reflection of what you are focusing on... in your career, in your personal life and relationships or in your health. What you focus on determines how you'll feel!


Now, write down why you must Engineer Your Success in Canada, even if you are not an engineer. As my friend Salvador put it, "These top ten qualities to be successful are fundamental for any professional trying to succeed in this new interconnected world." 
Now, please take your time and go through these next five steps. Be clear and specific. One step at a time...

• What are your reasons?
• What will it give you, your family, and your friends?
• What will it eliminate?
• What kind of stress would disappear if you had a guide like this?
• Write down what it will cost you if you don't take the time to master all  these qualities.

Be happy, now!

P.S. Do you notice any strange wording? (hint: see title)

"Quality questions create a quality life." ~ Anthony Robbins
"Always I will take another step. If that is of no avail I will take another, and yet another. In truth, one step at a time is not too difficult.” ~ Og Mandino

News You Can Use - The power of a simple ‘thank you’

 
"Think about this: When was the last time you wrote or received a handwritten note of thanks or even a thank-you e-mail?" read more...

“Make it a habit to tell people thank you. To express your appreciation, sincerely and without the expectation of anything in return. Truly appreciate those around you, and you’ll soon find many others around you. Truly appreciate life, and you’ll find that you have more of it.” ~ Ralph Marston

Five Simple Rules by Mircea Mihaescu

One of the "advantages" of working for a number of years is that you develop a small set of rules you apply to many (if not most...) of the situations you encounter. The way you have those guidelines applied varies from project to project, however you need a way to make them known to the people you work with in a simple way. I try to make mine "memorable" as well... here are five of them, that many of my colleagues have heard me repeating often:

1. If things seem under control, you are not driving fast enough (from Mario Andretti, race car driver)

This is my all-time favorite, as it describes a philosophy of pushing to your (or your team's) limits. If you don't try, you'll never know what you are capable of...

2. If it's too steep, you are too old (from a T-shirt in Banff, a ski town in Western Canada)
A corollary of the previous one, it is emphasizing the need to stay young at heart, to search for new ideas and and new ground, to "boldly go..." (you know the rest).

3. How many years does it take to get 15 years of experience? (from me)

My point is that in many professional domains it just takes time and effort to achieve the required level of proficiency. The answer is, of course, "approximately 15 years", and it should not be considered a "put down" message, rather as encouraging people to set goals and work hard to achieve them. No one wants to be operated on by a surgeon working for a clinic that advertises hiring with "no experience required"... Recently, Malcolm Gladwell has written extensively about this in his book "Outliers".

4. I've never heard such a stupid idea in my whole life! (one of my former managers)

The point here is to think and try to understand new ideas thoroughly, be constructive and tactful with your feedback. The manager in the story made that comment when hearing a suggestion from the company's CEO ( I was there as a techie). He was fired that evening. And the idea did fail spectacularly...

5. You need to repeat something seven times for an adult to remember (from personal experience)

One of my friends is a kindergarten teacher. She told me she doesn't stop from being amazed how quickly kids pick things up and remember them days after the initial discussion. It looks like after so many years of school, we adults have developed a certain level of resistance to other people speaking. So now I do not get frustrated, I just say it again, and again, and again...


Read more of Mircea at Thoughts on entrepreneurship, innovation and software development.

"The illiterate of the 21st Century will not be those who cannot read and write, but those who cannot learn, unlearn, and relearn." ~ Alvin Toffler

News You Can Use - Foreign professionals need 'soft skills' to find success

Foreign professionals need 'soft skills' to find success
Engineering a brighter future; Association trying to help immigrants
By Shaun Polczer, Calgary Herald

"Engineers like to think of mathematics as a universal language.

So the biggest challenge for skilled engineers immigrating to Canada isn't the ability to run calculations, it's often the 'soft skills' that go with finding a job on top of adjusting to a new culture and a new way of life."

Read more here.