This year is wrapping up and the hustle and bustle of the busy holiday season has taken over our personal lives. Easily overlooked but equally important, is taking time for professional reflection. Reflecting on your major milestones accomplished, and setting new goals is typical but you can reach deeper and ask yourself more revealing questions.

What were my successes and who or what contributed to them? What about these do I find surprising or unusual?
How did I expand my experience, not only in terms of performance and professionally but also inwardly for myself?
How often did I challenge myself? Did I challenge & inspire my team? 
In which opportunities to challenge myself & team did we flourish or flounder?
When did I apply my own experience of success and mistakes to develop and mentor individuals around me?
Did I maintain and grow my professional network, and am I effectively maintaining and utilizing those connections?

Your personal career reflection is crucial.  

Insigni Partners is a retained firm offering career growth counseling to determine paths forward. Being a retained firm gives us the advantage of getting to know you and the answers to tougher questions better, examining how your career experience and personal goals align with professional accomplishment, and identifying impeccable opportunities at the right time. In this way we are prioritizing your goals, aligning them with which clients are a great match either now or in the future. 

With so many computer algorithms “helping” us find the right opportunity or candidate, what does the human factor bring? The goal is for Companies and Candidates to come together and “accept” an offer. To best understand how that happens, let’s start with the definition of “Accept”- to believe the goodness, realness of something”. Without that belief an acceptance of a new hire or career move won’t happen.

Acceptance happens beyond the resume, beyond the initial submission. For each side of the recruitment process to come together, simply put, it is the company’s job to not only evaluate the cultural and technical fit, but to discuss the cultural, personal, and career implications. The candidate as well is evaluating the opportunity for advancement and weighing this against the personal changes in their life a new role brings, all in 45 minutes with each key player! An almost impossible task.

The executive recruiter and/or talent acquisition specialist through multiple discussions before an interview must establish enough rapport, and through their own actions establish credibility. Only then can they assist both parties to be able to “dig below the surface”, and give each a deeper perspective on what is important to the other party, beyond the website, job description, and resume. That rapport is only built through multiple discussions that are more listening than telling. Listening to what is not said up front and delving into what is truly important is key. In displaying respect to how critical a decision a new opportunity is, you must often “slow down, to speed up”, to truly understand where interest lies before the first interview. Remember, most people make their final evaluation, not on money, but cultural fit, balance of work/life, and opportunity to shine within that company--none of which can be determined off a website, or often not in the first 30-45 minute discussion. If you optimize the “human factor”, rapport has been built through multiple conversations on both sides of the equation and you don’t waste precious interview time on specifics that can be verified beforehand. Now the conversation is a deeper dive into the company and candidates’ expectations and motivations to make a move. Don’t rely on paper or just one conversation. That time up front will save valuable staff time from unnecessary interviews, save your credibility as a hiring executive; and as a candidate, know which part of your twenty years of experience may be important to discuss!
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The “human factor” is more critical now than ever before, as every role is more specialized and requiring individuals to deliver faster than ever before. Everyone must be accountable to be able to listen, verify, and exemplify strengths regardless of company or candidate, competition is still fierce to match top talent with great companies. 

As more people in the life sciences industry work remotely, managers need to be thoughtful and creative to keep their remote workers feeling engaged and less isolated. Here are some ways to do that:
 

• Communicate, communicate, communicate—use technology to keep everyone connected. Video conference meetings are great ways to connect the team.
• Set clear expectations and make everyone accountable for their part of the project.
• Have one on one meetings with each person on a regular basis to build and keep the relationships going.
• Encourage your team members to reach out to each other for discussions and decision making. When possible, assign collaborative tasks with different team members so they get to know each other.
• Have weekly team meetings where everyone participates with business and personal accomplishments, updates, or new ideas, etc. Sharing of the personal successes is another way for the team to bond.
• Have at least one annual meeting where the entire team is together. This is a great time to recognize the successes and efforts of the team.

 
With the right leadership, your virtual team members can be productive and just as engaged and motivated as those working in your office.

​If you’re lucky enough to have a “superstar” employee on your team, what are you doing to keep them happy and engaged? A superstar can be the glue that holds a team together, the one you know as a leader that you can turn to in times of need, and a motivator for others.
 
Identifying the qualities of a superstar:
 

• They set the bar high for themselves and hold themselves accountable for deliverables
• They are strong communicators
• They suggest viable solutions, not just identify problems
• They seek out opportunities to take on more work or to work on more complex projects
• They are relationship builders who are respected by all, both internal and external to your department
• They are the ones that people are drawn to for guidance and mentorship

 
How to keep superstars:
 

• THANK THEM one-on-one, and recognize their contributions in front of the team (often overlooked, this is actually a very important factor)
• Give them opportunities to expand their knowledge and expertise
• Give them autonomy to learn and to make mistakes

 
A superstar will stand out and be noticed, and you want to do all you can to keep them happy so they stay with your organization.

​Interviewing for a new job is nerve wracking and if you haven’t interviewed in a while, preparing for the interview is even more imperative. Giving examples to solidify the experience an employer sees on your resume is one critical component to your interview, but sometimes candidates get so focused on telling their story that they lose sight of what the interviewer is looking for. This is a common mistake, but one you don’t want to make. When giving examples during an interview, you need to be concise, and you should formulate your answers to consider the interviewer’s point of view:
 

• What sort of skills, experiences and accomplishments do they value?
• How will the role to which you’re applying drive their business forward?
• Are you a good “cultural fit” to their current team? 

 
Concise yet informative examples that you can relate to the role you are interviewing for, will help the interviewer and you to see how well you fit into their organization.