7 Changes to Improve Your Executive Resume Today

Executive Resumes

Your executive resume is one of the most critical vehicles for conveying your leadership qualities, achievements, and strategic vision. It may be tempting to treat it as a sort of laundry list, touting job titles and their tasks, but really, it’s about showing impact, leadership potential, and success.

Executive resume writers (like my team) follow a set of guidelines to create an executive resume that demands attention.

The following are seven simple things you can do to turn your resume into a powerful personal marketing tool:

1) Highlight Achievements in Relationship to Return on Investment – ROI

Why It Matters: You are the driver of growth and profitability as an executive. Quite often, one of the key measures of your success will be your ability to improve ROI. Start thinking of what you can add to that and show how you offer it. Backing it up with accomplishments will help prove that.

How to Implement: Instead of listing responsibilities, show added value to the companies you have led. Use hard metrics, such as percentages and dollar amounts, to demonstrate impact. People love numbers. Make sure you have them listed on your resume.

Example: Instead of saying, “Oversaw sales department”, say, “Grew sales revenue 45% over three years to drive an incremental $5M in revenue.”

Pro Tip: Be specific. What exactly was improved-cutting costs, increasing efficiencies, launching new products? Quantifying your achievements gives the recruiter an idea of what you bring to the table.

2) Exude Executive Presence

Why It Matters:  My friend, Gina Riley, explained it perfectly at the NRWA conference recently.
Executive presence isn’t about looking the part; it’s about actually developing into leader-permeated confidence, authority, and strategic thinking. It also helps eliminate doubt about the job seeker’s candidacy.

How to Implement: Include language that emphasizes your role in setting strategic direction, making high-stakes decisions, and leading initiatives. Don’t forget to add soft skills and how you impact others.

Example:  “Led the strategy vision and execution of a $50M company transformation while securing stakeholder buy-in across five departments.”

Pro Tip:  If applying for a more executive-level position, use words like “executive strategy”, “visionary leadership”, and “transformational change”. This should be reflected on your presence in your LinkedIn profile.

3) Demonstrate Team Leadership and Development

Why It Matters: Being able to build and lead successful teams is, for many roles, a key component of being an effective executive. How you lead is just as important as the results you showcase.

How to Deliver: Emphasize how you impact team performance- through the development of better leaders, improved engagement, or greater retention.

Example: “Led a team of 100+, across three regions, to realize a 30% increase in employee engagement and a 15% reduction in turnover within two years.”

Pro Tip: If you’ve ever mentored future leaders or built leadership programs, be sure to include that here. It shows that you’re all about talent development and making sure that the organizations within which you work are going to grow and thrive.

4) Add Board Experience

Why It Matters: Board experience indicates a high level of trust, capability in governance, and strategic acumen. There needs to be a mix of hard skills, soft skills, operational expertise, financial skills, and vision.

How to Execute: Mention formal board roles held in a corporate, non-profit, or advisory capacity. Include specific contributions such as policy development, financial oversight, or strategic guidance.

Example: “Board Member, XYZ Corporation-led governance reforms that reduced compliance risks 20% and accelerated decision-making 25%.”

Pro Tip: Even if you haven’t had formal board experience, highlight your interactions with boards or advisory roles you have played. That could show that you are ready for board-level responsibility.

5) Use Executive Keywords Strategically

Why It Matters:  Keywords are important to pass through ATS systems and to the eyes of a recruiter or hiring manager. Your resume will have a higher ranking with the use of proper keywords at the executive level.

How to Implement:  Research job descriptions for the roles to which you’re applying and incorporate high-impact terms such as “P&L responsibility,” “strategic planning,” “mergers and acquisitions,” “growth strategy,” and “stakeholder management.”

Example:  If the job posting asks for experience with “organizational change,” make sure that your experience includes the precise phrase, such as: “.led organizational change initiatives that resulted in a 35% efficiency increase.”

Pro Tip: Tailor your resume to each opportunity with keywords specific to that role. You can also check out the most-used terms in similar roles’ LinkedIn profiles for ideas.

6) Include a Potent Executive Summary

Why It Matters: Your executive summary sets the tone for the rest of the resume. It has to, in capsule form, provide an overview of career achievements, core competencies, and your leadership philosophy.

How to Do This:  Stick to 3-4 sentences; highlight your most valuable accomplishments and strategic skills. It should reflect your career goals and value you will bring into an organization.

Example:  “Transformational executive leader with 15+ years of experience driving growth in Fortune 500 companies. Proven track record of increasing profitability by up to 50% through innovative product development and operational efficiencies.”

Pro Tip:  Do not use generic phrases and try to keep the fluffy adjectives to a minimum. Make the summary personalized, at the same time that it is compelling and relevant to what the company is seeking.

7) Emphasize Cross-Functional Collaboration

Why it’s a must: It’s quite common for modern business leaders to work across multiple company teams: finance, marketing, human resources, operations—the list goes on and on. By highlighting cross-functional collaboration and functioning, you’re demonstrating adaptability and an all-round appreciation of the enterprise in question.

How to achieve it: While trying to work out how to describe your experience, reflect on where you have been able to help others get something done. This may involve projects such as the development and launch of a new product with marketing and R&D teams or working with finance on budget development.

Example: “Partnered with marketing, sales, and finance teams in the launch of a new product, delivering first-year sales of $10M and a 20% increase in market share.”

Pro Tip: Action verbs include, but are not limited to, the words “collaborated,” “partnered,” and “coordinated,” which drive home the point of your contribution to teamwork.

Wrapping It Up

Improving your executive resume does not have to be an overhaul of sorts. Minor modifications can work wonders:
– Quantify the achievements of the job
– Create commanding executive presence
– Use keywords appropriately

You will come across as sturdy leadership material. Take these seven steps today, and watch your resume get a complete makeover, propelling your career upward.

Why Your Executive Resume Needs To Step Up Its Game This Year

Executive Resumes
Why Your Executive Resume Needs To Step Up It's Game This Year

It’s no secret the job market is a tough one for executives this year.

Strangely, in the U.S., our unemployment level is the lowest it’s been in decades, and there are more job openings (8.5 mm) than unemployed people (6.5 mm). The economy is doing well, and the risk of inflation is down. People are spending more, personal income has increased, and overall, our finances look favorable. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, Americans are earning 22% more than before the pandemic.

You’d think we’d be high-fiving each other. So, why does it feel so much harder to get a job? 

Turnover is decreasing

For one thing, employees are quitting less. Unlike the atmosphere after the pandemic when employees could have their job pick of the litter and quit at will, today’s employees are putting roots down and their focus is more on longevity. Job turnover is decreasing, and the number of open roles is decreasing as well. This makes the competition extra fierce.

Employers are more selective

There is also a longer hold time on hiring. According to Josh Bersin Research, the average time it took to hire someone rose from 40 days in 2019 to 44.5 in 2023. With cost-cutting measures in place, companies are more selective about who they hire. This means candidates go through many rounds of interviews before they are brought on board. I talked to one client who was on interview number 21—with the same company.

So, what should an executive job seeker do to set themselves apart from every other executive candidate looking at the same job?

Elevate your job search plan

The old way you searched for a job just won’t cut it anymore. Telling a few colleagues and then walking into the corner office or, at the very least, a larger-than-last-time cubicle isn’t as easy as it may have been in years past.

Now, you should have a strategic job search mapped out and should include:

  • A list of 10-15 companies you are interested in
  • A list of 20+ employees who work at those companies
  • An updated LinkedIn profile to reach out to the above employees from
  • At the ready content and intros to send to said new contacts
  • Allotted time to warm up those relationships until you are at the point where asking about open positions doesn’t seem spammy.

Why Your Executive Resume Needs To Step Up It's Game This Year

Take a good, hard look at your resume

When was the last time you looked at your resume with a critical eye? It’s not enough to just keep adding your newest role to the resume. Does your resume weave your career story throughout its content? Does it help the reader know where you started and how you got to where you are now?

Consider your steady progress through the years. Do you have your wins clearly listed, or are they buried in a list of non-important bullets?

Branding matters

When you look at your resume, specifically at the top, does your brand show up? Does it say what you do, or does it say something like “Executive Profile”?

The best executive resumes clearly state what you want to do at the top of your resume. Don’t make employers search the resume for your focus—because they won’t.

Strong strategic leaders should start their resumes with a branded headline.

Consider the following:

Human Resources Officer

Or

CHIEF HUMAN RESOURCES OFFICER … CHIEF HUMAN CAPITAL OFFICER

Leadership Capability | Transformation & Change Management | Culture Development | Value Creation | Inclusion & Equity | Data Analytics & Insights | M&A/Integration | Executive & Leadership Coaching

Not only will the second one grab the reader’s attention, but it also explains what they specialize in, what they’ve done, and what they are capable of doing.

Identify your value and showcase it at the top. You are a thought leader. Show what your expertise is in.

Metrics and numbers for the win

As a strategic leader, your executive resume needs to be rich with metrics and results. Think of the projects you worked on, the sales you generated, the growth you gained, etc. –and always have numbers ready.

  • What project did you work on? What were the results?
  • How many people did you lead? What were their successes?
  • How did you and your team cut costs and/or save money?
  • How did you increase sales, even during turbulent times? (Think metrics AND the background story if there is one. Those are the most interesting)

Examples of resume metrics may include:

  • Raised gross profit by 4%, directing increased services demand across a broad range of verticals, with the healthcare, commerce, and residential markets each posting double-digit same-location YOY growth.
  • Expanded locations while maintaining a 94% location retention rate.
  • Drove $456 million in sales annually and built a pipeline of long-term recurring business with high-profile customers, enhancing company’s value such that it captured the attention of Johnson Technologies, which merged with Jones in a multibillion-dollar take-private transaction in May 2024.

However, many of our clients worry that their stories might not contain the metrics and numbers they need. If that is the case, we recommend leading with contributions that drove change within the company.

Examples of non-metric accomplishments may include:

  • Played an integral role alongside the CRO in transforming the enterprise risk management function into a highly valued strategic partner, embedding risk management into the organizational culture and positioning it at the forefront of TMX’s strategic planning and decision-making
  • Assisted in rebuilding ABC from the ground up; analyzed existing operations and risk frameworks/practices to gauge organizational perception and identify opportunities to elevate and enhance ABC’s value to the enterprise.
  • Improved the board’s capacity for effective risk management decision-making by establishing the board risk committee, governance, and reporting model. 

 

Why Your Executive Resume Needs To Step Up It's Game This Year

Stepping Up Your Executive Resume This Year

In order for a company or recruiter to see the ROI they will get when they hire you, they have to see what you can do for them. That starts on your resume. Most won’t take the time to dig into your story if it isn’t compelling. This is why your executive resume needs to step up its game this year. The more enticing your resume looks, the better chance you have to win over the reader. 

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Tired of trying to DIY your resume or LI profile? Reach out. We’re happy to help!

Mastering and Adapting Your Resume to Market Trends

Executive ResumesResume Writing

In the ever-evolving job market, adapting your resume to reflect current trends is crucial. A well-crafted resume does more than list your skills and experiences; it positions you as an ideal candidate in the eyes of potential employers (the goal). This post will guide you on how to master and adapt your resume to stay competitive.

 

Understanding Market Trends

The first step in adapting your resume is understanding current market trends. Trends can vary by industry, but common elements include the increased importance of digital skills, a focus on soft skills like communication and adaptability, and the need for evidence-based accomplishments. Staying informed about these trends ensures that your resume resonates with what employers are currently looking for.

Analyzing Job Descriptions

To tailor your resume effectively, analyze job descriptions in your field. Identify keywords and phrases frequently used and incorporate them into your resume. This not only helps in passing through Applicant Tracking Systems (ATS) but also shows that you’re in tune with the language and priorities of your industry.

Adapting Your Resume

1. Highlighting Relevant Skills

Update your resume to highlight skills that are in demand. For instance, if digital proficiency is trending in your field, ensure your resume reflects your competence in relevant software or platforms. Relevancy is one of my pet peeves. If you don’t have the skills relevant to the job, you may not be a good fit. If you do have the skills needed, don’t just list them, back them up by demonstrating how you’ve used them effectively in past roles.

2. Showcasing Achievements

Rather than just listing your duties at previous jobs, focus on your achievements. Use specific examples and quantify your successes wherever possible.
– Did you increase sales by 30%?
– Did you lead a project that resulted in significant cost savings?
– How did you help your team overcome a certain hurdle?
These specifics make your contributions tangible and memorable.

3. Modernizing the Format

Gone are the days of one-size-fits-all resumes. Today’s resumes are more visual and concise. Use a clean, modern layout with bullet points for easy readability. Infographics and charts can be used sparingly to showcase key achievements. However, ensure that the design does not overpower the content.

4. Incorporating Soft Skills

Employers are increasingly valuing soft skills. Showcase your communication, leadership, and problem-solving abilities through concrete examples. Kennedy suggests using scenarios from your work experience where you demonstrated these skills effectively.

5. Customizing for the Role

Don’t forget to customize your resume for each application. This doesn’t mean rewriting it entirely, but rather tweaking it to highlight the most relevant experiences and skills for each job. When in doubt, check out the job description. You’ll find lots of little gems in there (keywords, descriptors, etc.).

Overcoming Challenges

Adapting your resume can be challenging, especially when transitioning industries or re-entering the job market after a gap. In such cases, focus on transferable skills and continuous learning. Highlight any courses, certifications, or volunteer work that demonstrate your commitment to staying relevant in your field.

The Role of Networking

Networking can significantly impact your job search. Engage with professionals in your industry through platforms like LinkedIn. Often, a strong network can provide insights into market trends and even lead to job opportunities that are not advertised publicly.

Continuous Learning

In a fast-changing job market, continuous learning is key. Stay updated with the latest trends and skills in your industry. Online courses, webinars, and professional workshops can be excellent resources for this. Every extra bit of learning helps. Add them!

In Conclusion…

Mastering and adapting your resume is an ongoing process. It involves staying informed about market trends, highlighting your most relevant skills and achievements, and continuously learning and networking. By following these guidelines, you can ensure that your resume will stand out in today’s competitive job market.

ATS or Hiring Manager–Who should I write my resume for?

Executive ResumesResume Writing

Does the thought of writing your resume leave you confused?

Not sure who will be reading this? An AI (ATS) or a human?

It can feel stressful to know what to write, who to write for (recruiters? hiring managers?), what keywords, etc., especially when you aren’t sure exactly what an applicant tracking system does.

I’ll explain it in a nutshell.

ATS (Applicant Tracking Systems) are software programs used by employers to filter and sort through resumes to find the most qualified candidates for a specific job.

ATS typically look for the following elements in a resume:

Keywords: ATS scan resumes for specific keywords and phrases that match the job description. These can include job titles, technical skills, certifications, and other relevant terms that demonstrate your qualifications and experience. What words do you notice over and over in the job description?

Formatting: ATS prefer resumes that are well-organized and easy to read. To ensure your resume is ATS-friendly, use a simple and consistent formatting style, including headings, bullet points, and white space. Columns don’t work here as ATS reads left to right (like a book)—it doesn’t stop at the column.

Relevant Work Experience: ATS look for candidates with experience that closely matches the requirements of the job. Make sure your resume highlights your most relevant work experience, including job titles, dates of employment, and key achievements.

Education and Training: ATS also look for candidates with the required education and training for the job. Make sure to include your degree(s), certifications, and any relevant coursework or training programs you’ve completed.

Applicant Information: ATS also scans for basic applicant information such as name, contact information, and location. Make sure to include this information in a clear and consistent format at the top of your resume.

Knowing which keywords to add is perplexing to some of the candidates I talk to.

One way to know if your resume has enough keywords for ATS is to carefully review the job description and compare it to your resume. Look for the specific skills, qualifications, and experience that the employer is seeking and make sure to include relevant keywords and phrases throughout your resume.

Here are some tips to ensure your resume has enough keywords for ATS:

Use exact phrases: Use exact phrases from the job description wherever possible. If the job description calls for “project management experience,” include that exact phrase in your resume instead of a similar phrase such as “managed projects.”

Use variations of keywords: Use variations of keywords and phrases throughout your resume to demonstrate your familiarity with the industry and the specific job requirements. For example, if the job description calls for “customer service skills,” also include related terms such as “client service” or “customer support.”

Include relevant industry jargon: If there are specific technical terms or jargon commonly used in the industry, make sure to include them in your resume. This helps to demonstrate your familiarity with the industry and the specific job requirements.

Don’t stuff your resume with irrelevant keywords: While it’s important to include relevant keywords and phrases, don’t stuff your resume with irrelevant keywords. This can make your resume look unnatural and may actually hurt your chances of passing through an ATS.

Test your resume: Some ATS offer a “resume optimization” feature that can analyze your resume and provide feedback on whether it contains enough keywords for the job. Alternatively, you can test your resume by submitting it to a free online resume scanner that checks for ATS compatibility.

Something to keep in mind is that even though it’s important to write a resume that works with ATS, it’s also important to write for people.

It’s equally important to ensure that your resume is readable and appealing to human recruiters as well as ATS. This means using clear, concise language, storytelling, and formatting that makes your qualifications and experience easy to understand. Your resume should also highlight your unique skills and accomplishments in a way that captures the recruiter’s attention and stands out from other candidates. It should tell your story.

To strike a balance between ATS and human readability, consider tailoring your resume for each specific job application. Start by reviewing the job description and identifying the key skills and qualifications that the employer is seeking. Then, incorporate those relevant keywords and phrases throughout your resume while also crafting a compelling narrative that showcases your experience and achievements.

Similar to ATS, hiring managers typically look for the following key elements in a resume:

Relevant Experience: Hiring managers want to see that you have relevant work experience that demonstrates your ability to perform the job duties required for the position. Highlight your most relevant work experience and quantify your accomplishments with specific achievements and results.

Skills and Qualifications: Highlight your skills and qualifications that are directly relevant to the job. Be specific and provide examples of how you have used these skills in previous roles.

Education and Certifications: Include your educational background and any certifications that are relevant to the position. This helps to demonstrate your qualifications and expertise in a particular area.

Achievements and Accomplishments: Use specific examples to demonstrate your achievements and accomplishments in previous roles. Quantify your results wherever possible to demonstrate the impact you have made in previous positions. Numbers, numbers, numbers. Add metrics when possible.

Relevant Keywords: While not as critical as with ATS, it’s still important to use relevant keywords and phrases from the job description. This helps to demonstrate your familiarity with the industry and the specific requirements of the position.

Clarity and Readability: Hiring managers want to be able to quickly and easily scan your resume for the information they need. Use a clear and consistent formatting style, including headings and bullet points, to make your resume easy to read and understand. Keep the important info on page one—the top half of the page.

In summary, hiring managers look for a combination of relevant experience, skills and qualifications, education and certifications, achievements and accomplishments, relevant keywords, and clarity and readability in a resume. ATS seeks these things as well.

The job description offers a treasure trove of keywords and helps make the writing process so much easier. If you’ve done those same skills list them. Both the hiring manager and ATS will be seeking them out.

 

7 Skills to Add to Your Resume During COVID-19

Executive Resumes

Businesses are hungry for remote workers open to taking on the clients that once belonged to the full-time employees who have since departed from their teams. This desperation from businesses implies that your professional background does not matter as much as your sense of commitment, your work ethic, and the degree of loyalty and responsibility that you put into your work.

The reality of the matter is that companies are willing to hire and train new employees, remote workers, and independent contractors, as long as they show that they are up to the task. This is the world we live in, and with so much uncertainty, it’s perhaps easier to get a job today, now that employers are starting to become more open-minded to a number of different backgrounds and kinds of experience.

Today, we live in a world where everyone truly needs everyone if we are going to make it through. Here are seven skills to add to your resume during COVID-19 that show just how dedicated you will be to your next potential employer and demonstrate how much they’ll need you.

1.  Advocate for your Articulateness

People are impressed by those who know how to speak articulately. Bring this way of speaking into your interview, but on paper, highlight those activities that bring this skill to life. Have you written anything that’s been published? Have you given a speech at an important event? Are seminars part of your background work experience? Are you a proficient speller?

Consider the ways in which your words have served you in your professional life and write these examples down. Employers want to hire staff with the ability to connect with clients in confident ways that eloquently represent their company — it’s one of the top qualities employers look for.

2.  Showcase your Discipline

Demanding jobs require workers willing to put up with challenging tasks. Do you have a history of working in labor or construction? Perhaps you are an exceptional landscaper or have the grades of a genius. Maybe you were a committed athlete throughout college.

Find those areas of sheer discipline that you have executed throughout your life and mark them down as examples of your skill. Employers are most interested in working with staff that can consistently provide what they need at standard levels. The more disciplined you are, the more likely you can give them what it is they need.

3.  Indicate your Cultural Competence

As e-Commerce takes the stage, more and more businesses are introducing clients from other countries. Understanding the cultural etiquette of different parts of the world is crucial to creating positive business relationships with others dissimilar to you.

Show your potential employer that you are culturally aware by listing any travel or business experience where you were exposed to different kinds of people. These can include volunteer efforts as well. The more diverse you seem, the more of an asset you are to employers looking to make cross-cultural connections with businesses and clients from around the world.

4.  Show Digital Proficiency

Today is the information age, and tech knowledge is something employers will find very hard to pass up. List all software and programs you are familiar with and explain how they have served you in your professional life. Indicate your strengths with these applications and provide ways that including these strengths into the job you’re applying for will benefit the company. If you took any computer science classes or digital design classes during college or on your own, explain what you know well and how it may be of service to the position you are applying for. The more you know, the better.

5.  Include Humanitarian Involvements

Employers who can see that compassion is one of your strengths will really appreciate this quality. Having a sense of altruistic character in their workers will make the company environment more positive and will improve client interactions. Being a kind thoughtful person goes a long way in terms of the communications aspects of a company. It also highlights that you likely have a great deal of patience, which is needed when working in social environments. List any volunteer work you have completed, pointing back to skills you may have used that would benefit a potential employer. It may also help to explain why you chose to participate in these activities, as your employer may appreciate your genuine interest in helping others.

6.  Showcase your Adaptability

Hectic work environments require staff members to adjust accordingly. Share professional stories where you had to think fast and make important decisions. Seeing that you are strong in the area of problem-solving will intrigue possible employers, as coming up with solutions is an essential part of any serious position.

7.  Indicate your Competence Working Alone

Today, more than ever, the ability to work independently has become a crucial need for employers and individuals alike. Give your potential employer a list of jobs or tasks you have completed on your own during, lockdown or prior, that display your ability to handle things by yourself. Seeing that you can manage things alone will give your potential employer confidence in your ability to complete work independently when needed.

The skills you want to think about adding are those that reflect the changes that 2020 has instilled in all of us. It’s true. Those who are succeeding right now exude independence, dependability, and digital proficiency to an insane degree, as these dark times call for nothing short of incredible, superhuman strength. So, put on your heroic red cape and do your very best to advocate for yourself during your next job interview. Write down this set of skills to prove that you too, are a well-prepared leader in this strange new world.

Matt Casadona has a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration, with a concentration in Marketing and a minor in Psychology. He is currently a contributing editor for 365 Business Tips.

How can you improve your leadership skills easily?

Career & WorkplaceExecutive ResumesGuest Posts

 

 

(The following post is a guest post from Alma Causey.)

 

“If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more, and become more, you are a leader.”

John Quincy Adams

Finding actionable ways to motivate yourself and others towards achieving a specific achievement is a powerful thing. With more than merely focusing on coordinating everyone’s efforts, you need to aim at crafting a clear and compelling vision of success.

Leadership is all this and more.

You need to commit to being an exceptional leader. This begins with the desire to inspire. Therefore, you must learn to take the lead in every aspect of your life, whether that is at the office or a family gathering.

You’ll need to back your actions with a combination of features such as courage, confidence, sophistication, and savviness.

Ready to bring everyone on board?

To be an effective leader, you must possess the right skills for the job. Consider looking into the following tips to improve your leadership skills.

  1. Take the initiative to succeed

There are only a few people who are naturally born as leaders. But just about anyone can learn to become a good leader. All you need to do is develop the right mix of leadership skills. And that too, with dedication and sincerity.

And leaders are selected from the crowd. If you wish to stand out as an ideal candidate, volunteer to take on more responsibilities that go beyond your current position. Show to your superiors that are willing to learn and progress up the corporate ladder.

  1. Consider taking a course

Learning is a lifelong process. And with every aspect of our lives changing at a rapid pace, it is essential to acquire new skills and challenge yourself.

Enrolling in courses focused on building your leadership skills can help accelerate your career. Moreover, you will transform into a more confident person and an even better leader.

Make the most of this opportunity to push ahead in the crowd. Consider taking courses designed to develop self-awareness and leadership skills. In fact, joining a university to complete an MBA program could be a more suitable option.

But always register in a recognized institution that provides a comprehensive learning experience and a diverse curriculum. For example, a UT MBA is one of the most established and most exclusive ones in Florida. But also opt for ones that offer flexible timings so that classes do not coincide with your office hours.

  1. Build exceptional communication skills

Communication is an essential quality of a great leader. Therefore you will need to develop excellent oral and written skills. This can make you an outstanding employee and an even better leader.

When speaking to a team, don’t beat around the bush. List clearly what needs to be accomplished and how possibly repeating essential points a couple of times. But often, written notes and memos become easy reference guides when there are a lot of things that need to be done.

Set up regular meetings and check in on projects from time to time. This gives instant feedback to team members and offers them the opportunity to ask questions or clarify a particular matter.

  1. Listen effectively

Being a leader doesn’t mean you get to boss your colleagues around and coerce them into agreement all the time. Great leaders are even better listeners. They pay attention to what others have to say and reflect on it.

This creates a sense of comradeship and builds trust. Team members will know that they are being represented by people who care about them and their opinions.

To become an active listener, maintain eye contact and avoid getting distracted. Remember that your body language and gestures are equally as important.

It’s a good idea to summarize what you’ve heard and ask questions to see whether you’ve understood everything correctly. And when you respond effectively, this encourages positive feedback.

  1. Prepare a mindset that allows you to think critically

Good leaders are critical thinkers. That means they have the ability to foresee potential problems before they actually happen and develop ways to prevent them from occurring.

More importantly, leaders are aware of potential opportunities when they arise. They know how to bank on them for the benefit of the organization and the team. And remember it’s not about the facts at hand but rather the ability to utilize and evaluate them that matters.

To train your mind to reach these conclusions intellectually, you can try to employ the following techniques and become a better critical thinker:

  • Evaluate everything you hear and read.
  • Break the information down into simple aspects.
  • Ask relevant questions.
  • Consider reversing the information to get another perspective to the same situation.
  • Don’t be overconfident and assume that you are always right.
  • Become aware of biases and personal prejudices. Don’t let them influence your decisions or solutions.

Just remember not to think all the time critically. Utilize this tool to make crucial decisions, solve challenging problems, or lead effectively in pressure environments.

  1. Learn to delegate tasks

According to Theodore Roosevelt, the best leader is one who can pick out good men to do what needs to be done and enough self-restraint to let them do their job. Allowing others to work freely, not only empowers them but also makes people feel more involved.

Moreover, distributing tasks allows you to focus on other responsibilities. However, you must still oversee the entire project to ensure all goals are achieved on time and to the utmost potential.

  1. Become an inspiration to others

As a leader, you need to encourage and motivate team members to drive the company forward. But this can only happen if you plan to interact with employees on a personal level and understand them for who they are.

By possessing adequate leadership skills, you need to become a role model for them. Aim to influence people positively. And if ever a conflict does arise, learn to handle the situation diplomatically.

  1. Be ready to evolve

Highlight your strengths and weaknesses. With time and effort, you can significantly improve your shortcomings and expand on your innate abilities. Stay informed about everything.

Moreover, understand that there is more than one way to do the same thing. So you need to be open to new ideas.

Above all, admit that you are not perfect. It’s okay to make mistakes. More importantly, discuss them with your team, learn from them, and move on. In fact, have the courage to make fresh ones. It’s all part of the learning process!

  1. Learn to enjoy life

It’s one thing to be focused on the prize, but it’s entirely another to be obsessed about it. As an efficient leader, you should know how to live a life outside the workplace. Give the mind a break from time to time. This can help to refresh your objective and allow you to look at things from another angle.

You have to learn to live alongside work. So go to your family at the end of the day. Consider going on vacation regularly.

Wrapping up

It’s time you honed in on your capabilities as an effective leader. Developing these skills can influence various aspects of your life, especially your career. Take steps to discover your true potential.

Gain the hidden benefits of leadership skills, such as enhancing productivity and building your level of confidence. But above all, becoming a successful leader brings an insurmountable amount of personal satisfaction.

And remember that the key to transforming into a great leader is recognizing the importance of influencing others. Instead of becoming an authoritative figure, lead others towards a united force for success.

Ready to be an exemplary leader?

The Ultimate Must for all Executive LinkedIn Profiles, Emails, Resumes and Cover Letters

Executive ResumesJob Search
resumes and cover letters

Grammar, spelling and punctuation issues can bring your job search to a screeching halt before it even gets started. Still, too many executives overlook basic typographical errors that significantly hurt their chances of landing the job they desire. Whether it’s your LinkedIn profile, resumes and cover letters, emails or anything else, always take the time to proofread your work before any other eyes see it. Some recruiters and hiring managers may forgive a typo here and there, but you shouldn’t rely on it. Here are some tips for avoiding these mistakes and why it’s important to avoid them.

Proofread Everything Before Sending or Publishing

Never rely on the spell check program your word processing software has. Many important words can go undetected when misspelled, so it’s always important to give every document a thorough proofread before sending or publishing it. When you’ve looked at your resumes and cover letters for hours, it can sometimes be easy to overlook simple mistakes. Those simple mistakes could be costly and derail your job search.

Misspelled Words Can Hurt Your SEO

Not only will a hiring manager likely push your resume and cover letter to the side if they contain typographical issues, but you might also be undiscoverable online. Hiring managers rely on online searches to find the best candidates, so if important SEO terms are misspelled, they won’t find you. Everything from the headline of your LinkedIn profile to the list of achievements in your resume all factor into your SEO. One misspelled word can hurt you in different ways, so looking at everything with attentive eyes is worth the effort.

Have A Professional Read Your Documents

An executive resume service will easily catch simple typographical errors. However, what they also do to help is make sure your resumes and cover letters flow naturally, make sense to the reader and clearly demonstrate your brand and intentions. It’s entirely possible for you to have a resume free of grammatical and spelling issues, but still not help you because the language isn’t clear. This is where an executive resume service is beneficial to ensure your target organizations understand exactly who you are.

At Professional Resume Services, we don’t want simple mistakes getting in the way of your dream job. We are here to help you with any aspect of your job search, whether it’s creating a new resume from scratch or fine-tuning an existing one. Typographical errors aren’t a reflection of whom you are necessarily, but they can severely hurt your job search efforts. Feel free to reach out to us at any time to see how we can ensure this doesn’t happen.

How Old is Your Executive Resume?

Executive ResumesJob Search
executive resume writer

If it’s been a while since you looked for a new job, you likely haven’t updated your resume during that time. Depending on how long it has been, simply making updates to it won’t be sufficient. When writing an effective resume today, you have to take into consideration how it looks digitally as well as on paper. And a lot of the resume writing strategies that applied a decade ago should be avoided now. Recruiters and hiring managers will be able to easily tell if your resume is dated, so here’s how you can rework yours to catch it up with modern times.

Old Resumes Need To Be Reworked Completely

Any professional resume writing service will suggest rewriting your resume completely if it’s close to a decade old. Sometimes it’s best to start with a blank document so you won’t be tempted to operate under the same framework as your old resume. But when you’ve only written a couple of versions of your resume, and none of them have been recent, how do you know where to start? An executive resume writer is a good resource since they are up-to-date on what should and shouldn’t be included.

Resume Writing Strategies To Consider

Old resumes didn’t typically highlight a job applicant’s personal brand. Today, personal branding is essential to include on resumes, since it’s what sets you apart from the rest. It can be difficult to do this if you’ve never done it before, so there’s no harm in working with an executive resume writer for assistance.

Keywords, formatting, hyperlinks and more should also be modernized in your resume. With more employers using applicant tracking systems to help them filter through resumes, it’s essential to include proper keywords and phrases to ensure your resume gets recognized. Targeting is also highly recommended when writing an effective resume. Employers can spot a general resume quickly, so do your research and demonstrate your knowledge about the company and their needs in yours.

Outdated Details Should Be Removed

Details like where you live, professional references, outdated expertise, an objective statement or other personal information don’t belong on resumes anymore. Of course, if a specific employer asks for this information, then you should have it handy and ready to provide it to them. Nothing demonstrates an outdated resume more than including these types of details, which most employers aren’t interested in.

Professional Resume Services takes pride in being a trusted professional resume writing service for numerous executives. Keeping up with the times is difficult today in the fast-paced world we live in. It’s especially difficult to do so if you have held the same job for many years and need to put together a resume quickly. Whether you’re actively looking for a job or if you just want to give your resume a boost, feel free to contact us for a consultation.