Our guidance on what to do if you think you’re underpaid.

This cast came out of an email we were sent by a listener. He had recently transferred to a new position and received a standard merit increase. When the company advertised a similar role in a different department, the role was advertised with an additional $5000 in salary. In addition, the listener had spoken to someone who was leaving the company who had been in a similar role and he was making an additional 15%. Our listener was beginning to feel that he’d got a rough deal. The question was, what to do next?

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This guidance tells you how to potentially get some informal self development guidance from your manager by asking three simple questions.

Almost every manager wants more performance communications from their boss. But very few bosses give it. If you’re a manager, and you have thoughts about further managerial roles or executive life, what can you do to politely and professionally get some insight into what your boss thinks about your abilities?

Ask her three simple questions.

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This cast gives a guide to reading non-fiction with the aim of enhancing your career.

Some of us were taught how to read non-fiction in school. Some of us were taught how to critically review the arguments put forward and to analyze for ourselves whether the arguments made sense to us. Some of us were never taught, and some of us have forgotten how.

Some books are so good we want to try everything they suggest and we become overwhelmed and/or quickly burned out. That's where we get the 'flavor of the month' label. Sometimes we read ten or fifteen books and don't implement anything. That's wasted time.

So what is the best way to get value from the books we buy?

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This cast concludes our guidance on how to stay up to date on what's going on in your company.

One of the skills which separates the successful from the non-successful is their connectedness. They know what's going on in the company and therefore where the opportunities are. It's not all achieved by networking, though there is no such thing as too much networking. In part, it's achieved by knowing what questions to ask of whom.

That means reading and thinking about the information which is available.

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This cast gives our guidance on how to stay up to date on what's going on in your company.

One of the skills which separates the successful from the non-successful is their connectedness. They know what's going on in the company and therefore where the opportunities are. It's not all achieved by networking, though there is no such thing as too much networking. In part, it's achieved by knowing what questions to ask of whom.

That means reading and thinking about the information which is available.

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This cast concludes our guidance on how to prepare for the coming hiring market upturn.

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This cast gives our guidance on how to prepare for the coming hiring market upturn.

As we record this cast in early 2011, the signs of hiring recovering from the recession are still interspersed with more negative indicators. However, whether it's in the next few months or before the end of the year, the recovery will come. The world economies have always and will always cycle through growth and recession, and we need to be as prepared for an upturn as we are for a downturn.

It's not only growth which fuels empty vacancies. As the labor force begins to feel more secure, the quit rate goes up and the liquidity of the labor market increases. That's what we're seeing right now, ahead of the upturn. Whatever the current situation when you hear this cast, you need to be prepared.

Let's not all make the same old, "rushing around getting my resume ready when I get a call mistake" TODAY … because now things happen faster, and you've got social media to worry about.

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This cast helps you create a development plan for yourself.

One of the most common themes in the questions we get is 'I want to move from where I am, to where I want to be, how do I do it? Whether the person is talking about promotion, a sideways move or a career change the steps are essentially the same. Companies used to do this for us. In some companies there are still structured career paths and structured moves, especially at the lowest levels and in senior management. Often though, the company is small and doesn't have a method for developing staff. Or you're stuck in a wasteland, somewhere between the plant floor and an office of your own.

So, assuming that your company isn't going to do it for you (and why would you rely on someone or something else to control your career, even if they were willing) what do you do?

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This cast gives our guidance on dealing with a bad review.

We hope this never happens to you. But like being fired, getting a bad review is not fatal. It is something you can get over, if you have a plan. And, like being fired, when you look back on it, it can turn into the best thing that ever happened. That's not to say we want you to aim for a bad review – but we want to give you guidance on what you do when you get one.

If you have never had a bad review and don't intend to, keep listening. There's another way to use this guidance at the end of the cast.

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This cast describes how to effectively handle getting feedback through a 360 degree review.

We've said before that we think that 360 degree reviews can be very effective, but that they are often done poorly in terms of administration. In other guidance, we've cautioned about the risks of being completely candid if you're providing input. In part our recommended caution was a function of poor administration, largely around confidentiality. The other part of it is how we have seen SO many managers use the input unprofessionally, attempting to suss who said what.

But what about getting the input? What's the professional way to handle 360 input. Too few companies help managers who get such feedback. But we do.

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