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Have you ever heard of the expression “Fear Of Success”? Could you be undermining yourself and your career goals simply by not living up to your full potential?

If this is a problem for you, one of the first warning signs you may become aware of is that you begin to feel unfulfilled or unsatisfied in your job role, and might feel pessimistic about your future. Here’s how to unlock your true potential and achieve your career goals in 4 strategic steps and how to know when you’ve reached your goal of living up to your true professional self.

What is “full potential”?

Your potential can be seen as the latent qualities or abilities you might develop which will lead to your future success. These are individual to the person, and are therefore unique. Everyone’s full potential will be different and only you can truly assess what your full potential is. It’s a personal journey which can be useful in the framework of your career and professional goals.

Why is reaching your full potential important for your career?

“Changing your life for the better is about picking a destination and taking one step at a time to get there,” explains Dr Barton Goldsmith, a US-based psychotherapist. “If you try to take shortcuts, you may end up making your journey long and arduous. Being serious about making improvements is a great start.”

“Emotional fitness” can be applied in all areas of our lives but when we focus on unleashing our inner capabilities in a workplace setting we can begin to feel more aligned with our goals, both large and small. “When you stop to remember what you have instead of worrying about what you don’t have or may not be getting, it changes your perspective for the better,” explains Goldsmith.

The time spent doing meaningful work vs. “busy work”

Do you find the work you do meaningful? Are your daily tasks engaging enough to sustain your ongoing interest? Or do you sometimes feel that what you contribute is valueless, or just “busy work”? It’s not essential to assign meaning to every single element of your work but studies show that employee engagement is something that leads to both a company’s and an individual’s success.

In fact, according to a recent Gallup poll, 40% of Millennials says that it’s essential that they are “living their purpose” at work yet 51% of employees polled were “not engaged” in their roles, while 16% claimed to be “actively disengaged” – a worrying metric.

4 strategies to reach your full potential

If you suspect that you are not living up to your full potential and have more to give, there are 4 main strategies you can implement to help you identify your strengths and be more engaged in your current role, or to find your true path in a different role, via a career change.

#1: Set your intention: “People who achieve greatness in their lives don’t get there by chance; they know their purpose when they start their personal journey, and they kept that intention alive as they proceed,” says Kevin Kruse from Forbes Magazine. You can’t get what you want unless you identify it and focus on it. Spend time journaling, plotting or planning – from “big ideas” to the minutiae of life.

#2: Set realistic goals: According to a study by Bain.com the bulk of strategies actually achieve less than 50% of what they initially set out to accomplish. Aim to make small steps towards achieving your goals. “A strategy only 80% perfect but fully implemented almost always proves more valuable than an intellectually perfect strategy that is implemented incompletely.” Give yourself room to move.

#3: Try something new: If you feel your career has stalled, could you train in a completely new area? Could you consider a job in security or gain qualifications as a personal trainer? There are millions of stories online and from history that demonstrate that people can often find their feet within second or even third careers. Colonel Sanders (of KFC fame!) hit his strides at age 65 and Charles Darwin’s breakthrough study On The Origin of Species wasn’t published until he was 50 years old.

#4: Know yourself: Harvard Business Review points out that you are unlikely to really feel fulfilled in life if you don’t know yourself inside and out. Often the things we think we want are not the things we really want or are not the things that will bring us ultimate fulfilment. “Taking responsibility for your career starts with an accurate assessment of your current skills and performance,” says Harvard. “Write down your two or three greatest strengths and your two or three most significant weaknesses” as a starting point.

4 signs that you are working at your full potential

Once you’ve worked on the strategies above you can begin to feel more fulfilled in your daily tasks and your future career. Here are several signs that you can note when you’ve truly reached your full potential.

You feel fulfilled: Your work becomes meaningful and even small tasks take on a new lease of life. You begin to see the importance of the day-to-day tasks such as reporting, meetings and regular time with your direct manager.

You feel engaged: You have more stamina at work for tasks that used to bore you or that you had to “force” yourself to do. Engaged employees feel better, take fewer sick days and progress up the management chain more quickly.

You feel happy at work: You come to the office or workplace with a spring in your step, ready to tackle what the day brings. You might notice yourself feeling cheerier, talking more to colleagues and generally getting more done.

You feel excited about the future: The most important sign that you are operating at your full potential is that you feel excited about your future again. Having a goal in mind, even if it’s a small goal, can help to keep us focused on forward momentum.

Yvette McKenzie is a writer for Secta Security. She works for a leading online educator and has a background in broadcast media, with a passion for digital marketing, SEO, promotions, journalism and content strategy.

When it comes time to find well-qualified employees for open positions in your company, you have a lot of competition for their attention. And you also have to persuade them that they do, in fact, want to find a job: Sixty-two percent of currently employed people aren’t even looking.

In today’s attention-grabbing world, your first reaction might be to think a shorter job description works better, but it doesn’t. In fact, longer gets more exposure, as does accuracies in description and simple language that helps people quickly understand what the job is, what your company is, and what your values are.

Want more details? This graphic can help.

Source: http://www.akkencloud.com/how-to-optimize-job-posts-for-maximum-exposure/

The biggest obstacle to employee engagement and successful business may be work/life balance, according to the Happiness Index 2016. The year-long study looked at many factors that go into happiness and employee engagement. The 5 factors they found to be most influential were:

1. Roles and responsibilities

2. Management

3. Team’s work/colleagues

4. Workplace/environment

5. Work/life balance

While big steps have been taken recently to improve the office environment and to improve employee happiness, there's a lot of things that can be improved upon. Active Listening It's rare to have an employee open up to a boss, but they do, you need to listen. These moments are so valuable because it gives both parties a chance to hear the true experiences of the other. Whether it's a monthly review or an exit interview, creating the opportunity for employees to talk earnestly about their experiences with your company Employee Feedback Doing a monthly feedback meeting with each of your employees is one of the best things you can do to improve your business and recruit more skilled staff. These meetings don't have to be extremely formal, but they do have to be consistent. Make it a part of your business schedule. It's also best to not do these meetings in a formal setting. Try to just catch up with employee on a lunch break or during a break at work. This will make them feel comfortable and provide you with the most honest answers. Establish Manageable Workloads Don't overrun your employees with work. It's your job as a boss to manage tasks, meaning that you need to decipher the valuable work from the useless. Employees will become very thankful if you just make them feel like you're looking out for them. Good leaders are ones who can quickly and easily manage people and their unique traits. Learn about your employees, it'll help in the long run.

A major part of your life is going to be spent learning about yourself. While you can get caught up in the ride a lot of the time, taking some time to do a self-evaluaton every few months is important. Understanding and knowing yourself is one of the most important skill's you can possess. Whether you're learning from success or failure, continuing to move forward and learn more about yourself is key. Once you fully understand your goals, fears, and ambitions fully, you'll become much more confident and self-assured. Here are some of the best ways to start your process of self-discovery:

Think, Process, Ponder

Being yourself is important, but knowing yourself is even more important. Discovering yourself can only be done after taking some quiet time to think and assess your life. Many people don’t take the time to assess themselves because silence scares them. For these people, it's important to find peace in a silence, and make time to think. It isn’t until you allow yourself to be alone that you can evaluate yourself and be completely truthful with yourself. Then, you will actually be able to see every facet of your life – the good and the bad.

Realize Yourself

While you may think you know what you want out of life, it's important that you evaluate your passions and skills every few months. Understanding what you're good at and our interested in, makes discovering your goals much easier to discover. Once you've finally discovered why your goals are what they are, you can look further inwards and see what gifts you bring to the world. Always keep in-mind that your passions and goals will change over time. This is a natural process, and something that shouldn't be feared. While your goals and passions develop, you'll clear the fog that often clogs up people's minds when considering their goals.

Discover your Passions

Pursuing a passion is never a bad idea. You'll learn more about yourself in a day pursuing a passion then you would in a year working in a position you hate. One thing many people don't do is focus on their passions in every facet of their life. All this means is that people don't try and work their passions into other areas of their life. Whether you're bringing it into the workplace or back home, having elements of your passion throughout your life will make you a happy and healthier person. Passion produces effort, and continuous effort produces results.

Ask For Help

Asking others what you're good at is important to helping make this process easier. Although some peoples opinions should be disregarded, many will offer valuable input into elements you should focus on in your life. Sometimes those closest to you can make deciding what you pursue much easier.

Maintaining happy, engaged employees is the key to running a successful business. Although lost in many workplaces, creating and maintaining engaged employees is oftean a matter of taking a few simple steps. While feeling underpaid can be an issue for some employees, feeling underappreciated and ignored is the larger culprit as to why many employees become dis-engaged in their workplace. As a manager, it's important to keep in-mind that it's part of your role to keep your employees happy, satisfied and interested in their current roles. Whether it takes more encouragement, more appreciation or even more help, there are 9 key steps to keeping employees in your workplace engaged and successful.

Thanks to Casemore & Co for providing with the infographic. For more information on their customized training programs, check them out on Twitter, Facebook and Linkedin.

This survey is a font of knowledge for anyone in the business of hiring. It’s full of interesting tidbits about how today’s jobseekers are using social, and how recruiters are responding. Jobvite’s survey is free, but you must give them your info in order to access it… and it’s really long! If you don’t have all day, then check out:

How Recruiters Are Using Social Media in 2014 This article is a summery of Jobvite’s survey, highlighting the most salient of its findings for you, so that you can save a little time and effort. For a more visual summery have a look at MediaBistro’s blog post:

73% of Recruiters Spending More on Social Networks This article is full of beautiful, sharable graphics. Like this one…

Job Seekers Rely on Facebook, But Recruiters Prefer LinkedIn It seems like everyone’s on a Jobvite kick this week! This article from Human Resources Online interprets the results from Jobvite’s survey to better understand the social media disconnect between recruiters/human resources and jobseekers. The author shares some interesting thoughts and ideas about the survey, instead of just summarising its findings.

What Everybody Ought To Know About Social Recruiting

Identify, Follow, Share, And Engage, these are the key factors for effective social recruiting according to Alexandra Vornle. Her article is a wonderful follow up to all this research as it provides simples steps for anyone looking to make their hiring process a little more social.

Is Your Social Recruiting Cart Before The Application Horse?

Or, if your application process sucks, then no amount of social recruiting can save you. Katrina Collier’s article is an excellent reminder that the process of directing candidates from your Facebook job ad to the application “landing page” is as important as the ad itself. She goes on to provide some excellent tips for improving this part of the recruiting process. It’s a must read! For more great advice about improving candidate experience I highly recommend our recent article:

3 Tips For Improving Candidate Experience From a User Experience Designer

Happy link loving and stay social!

The world of recruiting in 2017 is extremely complicated. With so many outlets for ads, engagement and contact, companies have to be extremely weary of the spots where they advertise their specific positions. With more and more companies and recruitment agencies moving towards mobile, it's important you have a strong understanding of the scope of your recruitment efforts. Rather than keeping your focus on recruiting software that is automated and integrated, employers are poised to put more effort into the work environment and employee engagement. The focus of organizations on predictive, recruitment software's has truly changed the recruitment game in so many ways. Here are a few predictions for more changes coming to the recruitment game.

Engagement

Employee engagement is obviously important to your organization. Having engaged employees and candidates means putting an effort to have a solid approach to the work/life balance and career management. Applicants want to hear about how your workplace will help allow them to live a fulfilling life outside of work, as well as inside. Advertising the benefits of your position will be a huge part of being a great recruiter in 2017 and beyond.

Analytics

Analyzing and measuring your recruitment efforts is incredibly important part of any recruitment efforts. Just like anything else in business, you need to measure just how impactful you're being with your efforts. Imagine recruiting software that more accurately indicates which of your candidates are likely to be strong leaders or the best cultural fits before you extend an offer based solely on answers to standard interview questions. Using this trackable software is how companies can make sure they’re getting the right hire and/or fixing actual problems rather than perceived problems.

Social

Social integration is now the name of the game in the software industry. It's a must-have with any program, and that's no different in the recruitment game. Utilizing your social platforms as a way to promote your postings and jobs is a perfect way to find many great candidates. Many recruiting softwares now provides an opportunity for social engagement through the tool itself – in other words, built-in social media management features. 2017 will be a big year for finding your next impactful hire. Make sure you're ahead of the game by following these trends and find a way to exploit the system.

What: ————————————- Facebook. The New Face of Recruiting.

Recruiting has changed… but trust us, it’s for the better. Facebook is the number one choice in today’s market for good reason.

80% of all internet users prefer to connect with brands over Facebook than any other social platform [[http://istrategylabs.com/2012/12/infographic-huffpos-100-fascinating-social-media-statistics-2012/]]

584 million daily active users [[http://www.recruitingblogs.com/profiles/blogs/40-amazing-social-media-statistics-every-recruiter-should-know]]

More job seekers are looking for work on Facebook than LinkedIn http://mashable.com/2012/10/09/jobs-facebook-linkedin-twitter/

• 43% of recruiters who use social recruiting saw an increase in candidate quality73% have successfully hired a candidate through social31% of recruiters using social have seen a sustained increase in employee referrals

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• 52% of job seekers used Facebook to help find work in 2012. (source: jobvite)

• 1 in 5 job seekers has had a contact share a job on Facebook[[

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Recruiting is constantly evolving, and as technology grows and changes, so must recruiters. This can make talent acquisition more complex, but it can also make it much more successful. [[http://blog.bcjobs.ca/jobcast/social-recruiting-trends-for-2013/]]

Luckily for us, Facebook and recruitment make for an incredibly effective combination. And, if used correctly, it can actually simplify your recruitment efforts.

Facebook is the simplest way to connect with candidates directly. Facebook is, at heart, a social network, so interaction and dialogue with candidates isn’t a just a part of the process, it is the process. —————

Why: ————————————

The most compelling reason to recruit with Facebook is its massive reach. Boasting over 1 billion active users, Facebook is where people are. Even more importantly, it’s where people are looking for work.

“52% of job seekers used Facebook to help find work in 2012. (source: jobvite)”

More people than ever before are using social networks (like Facebook) to find employment. And the number one rule in recruiting? Go where the candidates are.

Facebook is at the core of social strategy for well-rounded recruiting programs because no other platform offers comparable reach, access, or level of interaction.

As Facebook grows, which it continues to do rapidly, so does the amount of people using it as a central part of their job search. As we’ve already seen with additions like Facebook Graph Search, access to candidates just keeps getting better. [[http://blog.bcjobs.ca/jobcast/facebook-graph-search-is-the-next-big-thing-for-social-recruiting/]]

————————– Facebook is multifaceted.

When you use Facebook to recruit, not only are you posting jobs, you are also strengthening your employer brand. Posting jobs in newspapers, or on sites like Craigslist, will draw attention to that specific job, but will not draw attention to you as an employer.

Facebook is a game changer.

When you use Facebook to recruit, you create a brand presence that will grow with every job you post. Facebook interactions with fans in the form of comments and Likes strengthens your brand with social proof. [[http://techcrunch.com/2011/11/27/social-proof-why-people-like-to-follow-the-crowd/]]

Your branded Career Page, the content you share, and the image you build will all be visible to Facebook users. So, if a potential hire checks out one of your job posts and decides it’s not for them, all is not lost!

They can still browse your other job posts, learn about you as an employer, and Like your Page, so that if a suitable position becomes available, they can apply right away.

————————— How ———————– How to make Facebook work for you

In order to use Facebook effectively for recruiting you’ll need to focus on these five aspects:

Employer Brand Facebook Career Page Content Creation Community Building Metrics

All five aspects are interconnected. A well-balanced Facebook recruiting campaign must take each into account.

——————- Employer Brand

Know your employer brand.

Creating a strong ,consistent employer brand is important. It will influence your Facebook Page in its design, the content you post, and how you interact with your online community. A strong employer brand is what sets your Page apart from your competitors’.

Everything you do on Facebook should reflect your employer brand. That’s why we cover employer branding first. It will influence everything else that follows.

For a great example of effective employer branding check out this case study. [[http://blog.bcjobs.ca/jobcast/why-and-how-family-run-business-gordon-food-service-got-social-with-their-recruiting/]] ——————– Facebook Career Page

To start Facebook recruiting, you’ll need a Facebook Career Page. This is where your jobs will be posted and where you’ll want to direct potential hires.

Your Career Page needs to be fully branded. Consistency with all of your social platforms is important, so be sure that your design and content match.

To help build your brand presence, your Facebook Career Page should include: – A branded color scheme. This should be consistent with your company website and logo. – Attractive imagery. You can use images of your employees, your break-room or stock photos that you purchase online. – Embedded recruitment videos. These do not have to be big budget. Here’s a quick guide to shooting a fast and easy recruitment video. They are a great way to showcase company culture and get people excited to work for you.

Using a branded color scheme, great photos, and video will make you stand out from other Employer Pages, and make a positive impression on talent.

———————- Now that your Career Page is fully branded, it’s time to create content!

The most important content you’ll create will be the job postings themselves.

Think of your Facebook job postings in the same way you would any other content shared through social media networks. Your job postings are just another way to communicate with your online community. Making them relatable, relevant, and easy to consume is critical to your Facebook recruiting success.

Here’s how: -Make them short, clear and fun -Have every post centered around a “Call to Action” such as “If you’re an awesome graphic designer, Like this job!” -Have current employees Like and Share every job post you create

Check out this great article for advice on writing awesome job descriptions from two HR pros. [[http://blog.bcjobs.ca/jobcast/writing-effective-job-posts-advice-from-my-favorite-hr-experts/]]

——————————— ——————

Content is about more than just job posts!

In order to grow your employer brand and increase your reach you’ll need to post content regularly. Don’t worry though, it’s actually super easy to do!

One of our most successful clients, ThinkSask, has really mastered the art of content creation. They’ve done so by creating a simple strategy.

Post consistently and stick to the following content ratio for social recruiting:

25% – Job postings 25% – How to get hired 25% – Culture 25% – Fun/Lifestyle

Check out their fully branded Facebook Page for a real-life example of Facebook recruiting best practices. The effectiveness of their Facebook recruiting campaign is truly inspiring. [[http://blog.bcjobs.ca/jobcast/branding-a-province-the-art-of-facebook-recruiting-and-social-media/]]

—————————

Build Your Community

A well-maintained Facebook community means tons of benefits for employers. You’ll spend less time and money on job boards and advertisements, spend more time interacting with job candidates, and have the opportunity to give those candidates a better understanding of what your company really does every day.

Your Facebook community is similar to a talent community, in that it provides you with a group of candidates to reach out to whenever a new position arises.

Create a vibrant Facebook Community by: – Posting great content, like the kind we just outlined – Engaging with your Fans directly by asking questions, and always responding to their comments – Interact in a down-to-earth way. Use similar language to your fans, not jargon, and even make jokes with them – Show your face – let your community see who they are engaging with – Figure out what works best for you, through trial and error, and then be consistent

This article gives a more detailed explanation of how to build an engaged Facebook community. [[http://blog.bcjobs.ca/jobcast/how-to-win-candidates-and-influence-talent/]]

____________________

But how do you figure out what works? ———————- Metrics!

Metrics are necessary when it comes to recruiting strategy, because without detailed insights about how previous campaigns were conducted, and what their outcomes were, you simply can’t understand why they did, or did not work. And understanding why previous recruiting campaigns were successful (or not) is fundamental for improving your future endeavors.

Recruiting with Facebook makes data-gathering much simpler and more accurate than any other kind of recruiting. This is because the markers of success are so trackable. You’ll need to use every source available, so Facebook’s Page Insights, paired with the metrics of a good Facebook recruiting app is the best way to go.

Every time you make an adjustment to your recruiting and employer branding strategy, make note of when you implemented the changes and check the data monthly to determine whether it was a change in the right direction. Also pay attention to promoted posts vs non-promoted posts, the hours and days your reach is at its peak, and what kind of content garners the most feedback.

This will help guide your future Facebook recruiting efforts and help you continue to strengthen your employer brand. [[http://blog.bcjobs.ca/jobcast/facebook-insights-how-metrics-can-lead-to-better-recruiting-employer-branding-and-napping/]]

————–

The solution: —————

Facebook is the future of recruiting.

Everyday more and more people turn to the social network in search of jobs, and smart employers are making sure their jobs get seen. Just follow the steps we’ve presented and you’ll join them in creating a vibrant talent community and strong employer brand with Facebook.

The only thing that can make Facebook recruiting even easier and more effective is a great recruiting app.

The Jobcast Facebook Recruiting app allows you to create a fully branded career page, engage candidates with video and imagery, and provides all the metrics you need to measure success. Jobcast is so easy to use that you can be recruiting on Facebook in as little 2 minutes.

Facebook is where candidates are looking for work. Jobcast is the simplest way to attract, engage and convert those candidates.

Try the Jobcast Facebook Recruiting app for 30 days completely free.

Just click here to start hiring now.

Entering the workforce can be daunting, but keeping everything is one of the major keys to success. There’s a lot more to becoming an efficient and appreciated part of your new company then just being a hard-worker. Unless you’re a surgeon or first-responder, you’re not saving lives at your job, so first of all calm down. Taking this attitude will go a long away to creating success for yourself. Just try relieving some of the self-imposed pressure from your work and see how things turn around. Below are some other great ways to make a lasting impact in your new position.

Learn from Criticism

You learn quickly that you can take on every piece of criticism you receive at your job. Having said this, taking note of certain constructive criticisms can help you grow as a worker. Whether in a word document or just in a notebook, a few quick notes reviewed at the end of each week is all this needs to be. As a bonus, try asking the person that criticized you to elaborate on their thoughts so you can grow even more.

Ask General and Specific Questions

This flows directly from the last point. Whether you’re receiving a compliment, criticism or just a tip, always ask for a quick explanation. This can even be done over email if the moment doesn’t feel right for a direct in-person question. If it’s your first job out of school this is even more important. Just learn and take on as many tasks as possible.

Develop the Ability to Adapt

The office environment can be a difficult one to adapt to. Whether it’s the work, politics or something else you’re struggling with, adapting to your new job can be difficult. To help in this process put out extra effort to get to know every one you work with in a business context, as well as personally. Try observing your own interactions and seeing what you can improve upon. Trust me, this will help you adapt much faster than you would otherwise.

Maintain your Personal Life

A key to being a productive worker is having a good attitude. While some people can live their lives without a personal life and still have a great attitude, most of us can’t do that. This is why maintaining an illustrious personal life is so very important. Do your best to keep up friendships and family relationships. Don’t let your work take over. On top of your friendships, try picking up an activity if you don’t already have one. Getting some energy out after a long day’s work will help you be more productive the next day.

If you haven't already installed our Facebook Job app, This post is meant to explain how the app works and provide some screenshots of the app in action! With our Facebook job app your company can post jobs and receive applications on Facebook pages. It’s a great tool for recruiting staff within Facebook. Easy to use and can be set up in minutes! for instructions on getting started, please visit our How to Install page.