The New Generation Of Young Women Leaders Study Defines Skills Needed To Fulfill High Aspirations

How do today’s young women see themselves and their futures? A recent student-designed survey from an innovative high school came up with some intriguing revelations.

Compared with high school boys, high school girls are significantly more likely to see themselves as leaders, are just as likely to say they would run for U.S. president, and have higher college aspirations than their boy counterparts.

Susan Schulz, editor-in-chief of CosmoGIRL!, says, “Girls embrace our mantra, ‘Born to Lead,’ because this is the first generation of girls who grew up playing alongside boys on the soccer field, stealing the ball and scoring goals. Now that these girls are teens, their goals include working their way to the corner office, including the Oval Office.”

The national, online survey of over 1,500 teens, designed by Miss Hall’s School, an all-girl high school, also found that more than 70 percent of girls versus 50 percent of boys desire a job where they can help others and make the world a better place. Head of School Jeannie Norris says, “Teen women are rejecting the old-style, top-down models of leadership and are embracing a new style, one that utilizes teamwork to solve problems.”

A significant finding of the study, however, pointed to a “leadership gap.” In responding to real-life leadership dilemmas, girls do not always follow through on what they know to be best when friendships are involved. For example, a girl might not vote for the better candidate in an election if her best friend is running in opposition. Inhibiting girls’ decision making is the priority they give to personal relationships.

One of the major implications of the study is that girls need to be taught the skills that allow them to work through difficulty while staying in relationships with peers. Historically, girls’ high aspirations for leadership in high school do not translate into significant increases in numbers of women in the top echelon in any sector. Norris says, “In order for young women to sustain their ability to lead beyond high school and into their adult lives, they must become comfortable with assuming authority and resolving interpersonal conflicts in a way that holds true to their values.”

Another significant finding is that girls who are comfortable with their personal authority-i.e., girls who self-identify as leaders-are more likely to act on their values. Norris says, “Girls who have the inner confidence to claim that they are leaders seem to be freer to do what they know is right.” Self-identified leaders also tend to do better in school, bring an activist approach to problem solving, and hold higher aspirations for their futures.

In spite of the somewhat sluggish economy, in specific fields job opportunities are truly abundant and simply waiting to be tapped by qualified applicants. As a result of new technology and techniques, new skill sets are required but because the required skills have changed faster than the overall workforce, the numbers of qualified applicants has actually been decreasing for the past several years as workers rush to brush up and improve their talents in order to be considered “qualified” and in the mean-time, companies wait to fill these in-demand jobs.

From legal assistants or paralegals, pharmacy technicians and nurses, various training programs are now being made available for the public… including medical transcriptionist aspirants.

According to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics, becoming a medical transcriptionist represents one of the top ten job opportunities in the country. Medical transcriptionists are those people who create the legal documents which health care professionals like physicians, registered pharmacists, therapists, registered nurses, dieticians and chiropractors all rely on and use as reference materials.

The potential topics under which a medical transcriptionist could find themselves working in are incredibly varied and they range from Medical Terminologies, Medical Law and Ethics (HIPAA), In-Patient or Out-Patient Medical Transcription to Human Anatomy.

This wide range of potential topics is one of the big reasons why becoming a medical transcriptionist is not for just anyone. People who aspire to become medical transcriptionists need to undergo proper education from medical transcriptionist schools, which teach and train them in the various fields that they need to master in order to become a certified medical transcriptionist.

Medical Transcriptionist schools will also be able to help you better prepare for the Certified Medical Transcriptionist (CMT) examination. Various medical transcriptionist schools offer training courses for potential medical transcriptionists. Aakers Business College, TechSkills, National College and PC Age are just some of the medial transcriptionist schools that can be found in the country.

Some medical transcriptionist schools even offer the option of training online via the comfort of ones own home. By simply having access to the internet, students from online medical transcription schools can actually access the available training modules and other medical transcription related materials that they will need in order to pass the medical transcription training.

More and more Medical transcriptionist schools are moving to this modern method of teaching because it expands their potential market due to the fact that many of their medical transcriptionist students are quite busy and value the option to take the medical transcription training at their own pace and being able to enjoy the convenience of setting their own schedules.

With the current high demand for medical transcriptionists, it’s not surprising to see entrepreneurs jumping into the fray and taking advantage of this opportunity by setting up all sorts of medical transcriptionist schools… all geared towards training their students for an exciting medical transcriptionist career.

Apart from the necessary training that one acquires from medical transcriptionist schools, it’s also important to note that any top medical transcriptionist will also possess excellent listening skills. Solid listening skills are truly and indispensable requirement in this field because medical transcription requires that the medical documents you are transcribing be perfect in every way possible.

Health care professionals are relying more and more on those transcribed medical documents when it comes to going about their everyday business. Whether it be filling prescriptions or doing some type of research, it’s simply vital that the transcribed information they receive is accurate.

Just a small slip or momentary loss of concentration could result in unexpected negative consequences for a patient because so many health care professionals rely so heavily on the medically transcribed documents they receive as the basis for making their diagnoses and prescribing medications.

Although the potential to earn a substantial income lures many into the medical transcriptionist field, it doesn’t automatically mean that they are cut out for the position. To succeed you must be extremely dedicated, patient and be able to handle the weight of responsibility that comes with the title – Certified Medical Transcriptionist

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Telecommuting can be explained as working from home, instead of working in the office with the aid of the computer and connectivity is made possible through communication devices like the telephone, fax or Internet. Gone are the days spending hours traveling from home to the work place, taking leave for doing personal work etc. Telecommuters save time, energy and money unnecessarily spent on traveling to the office from his house. Telecommuting offers lot of benefits for both the company and the employee (the telecommuter).

Advantages for the employer due to telecommuting:

The overhead expenses involved in running the office is minimized to a greater extent, as they will have to spend only lesser amounts towards electricity charges, minimum car parking facility, smaller work space which in turn reduces the rent of the office building, less number of computers in the work place, etc. The employer also benefits by not having to spend on a manager or supervisor to monitor the employees. The ultimate aim of the employer is to get the work done on time and with greater accuracy, which can be got by having weekly meetings with the telecommuters. Also, the employer saves money by not spending on factors like traveling expenses and leave salary. Some of the telecommuters even would like to take the job with a lesser salary as they get the benefit of working from home. Thus telecommuting benefits the employer by all the means.

As employees, the telecommuters get the flexibility of doing the job from home. They can do their personal work and at the same time can complete the job on time by putting more effort during leisure time. For example, a mother would like to work, when her kid is off to school and telecommuting makes it possible. There is no need to go for work daily; hence it saves time, money and energy of the telecommuter. Also, the Telecommuter need not compulsorily own a business; he can also work for company situated anywhere in the world. Telecommuting jobs like the mystery shopper, restaurant spy and online photographer give a satisfaction to the people who are passionate about shopping, eating and taking photography.

The society too benefits from telecommuting job. Wondering how? Traffic congestions are minimized, pollution is reduced and fuel usage is minimized. The productivity too increases as the time wasted in commuting is reduced.

If I were to pattern myself after a famous character in a book, I’d pick a heroine that was gorgeous, brilliant and amazingly successful.

I wouldn’t pick Barbara Ehrenreich as she presented herself in “Bait and Switch, the Futile Pursuit of the American Dream.” However, that character seems to have picked me. Try as I might, I can not escape the fact that Ehrenreich’s adventures in that best-selling book are much like my own.

The biggest difference is that I didnt get to write about my failure in the job market and make a bunch of money on book sales. I just got to endure my failure and realize that my life was a statistic.

That’s always fun.

I’ve also read about myself in the pages of the New York Times. (See, I must be famous and they just forgot to tell me!) I’m so flattered when a guy like columnist Paul Krugman writes, “a college degree has hardly been a ticket to big income gainsthe real earnings of college graduates fell more than 5% between 2000 and 2004.”

Paul, I’m glad you know me and I hate to criticize, but you got it wrong. For this college graduate, her income fell 100%, not a measly 5%.

But the gist of Krugman’s writings, that the obscenely rich are getting more obscenely rich and everybody else is falling, is completely accurate. This economic unbalancing act is happening for lots of reasons, one of which is white-collar unemployment and under-employment.

My point is that my woes are not just mine. Many people are like me. I see them every time I make a trip to any retail outlet, folks who used to work at professional jobs selling lumber, light fixtures or lettuce. Older workers who may not have the pep of a 21-year-old; they have what the workplace DOES NOT reward, wisdom and experience.

I do not pretend to understand the irony of that; I just know it to be true.

To avoid falling into the same trap as my former white-collar buddies, I have elected to start an Internet business instead of taking whatever menial, low wage job I can find.

In part, I made that choice because I couldn’t find a menial, low wage job. I interviewed for five. None wanted me. It must have been the orange skirt I was wearing that made me look like the great pumpkin.

Barbara Ehrenreich’s job coach gave me that tip. (I couldn’t afford my own job coach so I borrowed hers.)

Self-employment is risky, but it’s the only way a person like myself will escape being a wage slave. The Internet is still open to the little guy so even though I’m a little late, I’m merging onto the information super highway.

Which brings us to the net neutrality issue. How much longer will the Internet be open to the little guy? If the big guys get their way, not much longer.

Bastards.

What option would be open to me then? Welfare handouts? The big guys would balk and call me lazy and undeserving. “Find a job, damn it,” they’d bark.

“I’m trying,” is all I would be able to holler back from my merry-go-round as it whirls past them, lazily enjoying their weenies and ice cream cones.

I’m trying.

The quality of the care you provide to your patients is important for them in so many ways. Of course you need to maintain a certain level of professionalism with patients, visitors, and the medical professionals you work with. But overlooking the importance of bedside manner in nursing reduces the quality of the care that you have taken an oath to provide to the patients under your care.

Doctors are often more focused on the conditions and symptoms that patients are suffering from and finding the appropriate course of treatment for those symptoms and conditions. Due to this situation, their genuine concern for patents is not always conveyed. This can result in patients not feeling as if they can or should discuss symptoms they are experiencing, possible questions they have, and the fears they are keeping to themselves with the doctor. Many people feel more comfortable sharing this information with a nurse who has a friendly bedside manner. Therefore it is vital that you remember the importance of having a good, friendly bedside manner. You may often be the only bridge between the doctors getting the information needed to treat the patient better, and a patient understanding that not fully disclosing these things can seriously affect the outcome of their treatment.

For patients suffering from serious illnesses or injuries, the level of bedside manner provided by the nursing professionals caring for them, often takes on a greater significance. Your beside manner is integral to the recovery process of your patients. Think about it from the standpoint of the patient. Coping with an illness or injury and the treatment they must undergo for recovery is a time filled with fear and stress. They may also be dealing with symptoms such as pain, shock, confusion, nausea, light headedness, stiffness, lessened or complete loss of mobility, and sleep and appetite changes. The level of fear and stress is often heightened when a patient is hospitalized for treatment. The unfamiliar settings of a hospital can be very distressing to patients who are stressed because they are sick, injured, or having surgery.

Treatments can be uncomfortable or even painful. Patients may perceive their conditions to be worse than they are and their prognosis dismal, and may keep these feelings to themselves. Patients can easily become overwhelmed by the fear and stress they are feeling and not hear or understand what the doctor is telling them about their condition, the recommended treatment, and the risks involved. This will increase a patient’s level of fear and stress which can worsen their condition and make it harder to treat them successfully. Family and friends may also increase a patient’s level of fear and stress. They are themselves confused and scared because their loved one is ill or injured. Without meaning to, they may transfer their fears, confusion, and stress onto the patient whose body is already struggling under the weight of a medical condition. In these situations, the importance of bedside manner in nursing cannot be overstated. Displaying a calm, friendly demeanor to patients and their families can reassure them and reduce their fears and stress.

Some people don’t have family or friends who can visit them while they are in the hospital. This can lead to a patient feeling lonely, sad, and isolated or cut off from the people and surroundings they know and their normal lives. This can cause appetitive and sleep difficulties and even reduce the effectiveness of pain medications for the patient feeling as if they are all alone. Taking the time to talk to patients and asking them questions helps them to feel that they are not alone. This also conveys to them that you care not just about doing your job to the best of your ability: but also about them. Knowing that someone cares can very often help further the recovery process even when present treatments do not seem to be working, or working fast enough.

But even when the condition is a terminal illness or disease such as Cancer and the prognosis is not a positive one, bedside manner is important for helping those patients to be as comfortable and at peace as possible. Your bedside manner will also mean a great deal to the family members who must come to grips with seeing a loved one so seriously ill and knowing the end is drawing near. This is probably the hardest part of nursing. But there is nothing nobler than ensuring that a person is given dignity, comfort, respect, and compassionate care as they transition away from this life.

Your bedside manner is important to the patients you care for in so many ways as a nursing professional. Never underestimate the power of a good bedside manner. Take steps so you do not forsake the oath you have taken to provide quality care to your patients. Remember the importance of bedside manner in nursing.

Goals are very important in everyones life and, as such, goal setting is equally important to helping us achieve our hopes and dreams. The most important aspect of goal setting is to make sure that the plan is a realistic one. For example, its impossible to make it a goal to win the lottery. Why? Because gambling is a game of chance and your actions have no real impact on whether or not that particular goal is achieved. The best type of goal setting is that which is done with a certain degree of practicality.

A plan of action is the first important step toward goal setting. For instance, an individual who wishes to attend college and needs to save money can work out a budget to earn cash while attending school part time. By enrolling part time, the tuition will be less expensive and even though the degree completion process may take longer, the ultimate goal will be reached in time. This is a good example of positive goal setting.

When working out a goal setting plan, it is important to choose one that is realistic. A poor example would be saving enough to become a millionaire within a specified amount of time and no real way of coming up with the funds needed to save. There is nothing wrong with having big dreams and trying to reach impressive goals, but it is very important that they not be unattainable. If an individual were to participate in a goal setting exercise at an unrealistic level and that plan were to fail, depression would surely result. In order to avoid this negative emotional impact, practicality is the key to positive goal setting.

Once goals are set, it is important to stay focused. This means being careful with funds if the goal is one that involves finances. An example would be saving a down payment for a home and seeing a snazzy new sports car that catches the eye. An individual who stays focused on their goal of home ownership will feel much more rewarded than those who give in to the temptation of a quick purchase, which is likely to result in buyers remorse.

Goal setting is an important part of everyday life. Whether its a homework assignment that needs completion, a work project that has to be done by the end of the day or a financial goal that needs reaching, effective planning will help even the most challenging goal become closer to being reached.

Every woman who reaches mid-life that halfway stop where dreams have been either realized or abandoned looks around and wonders, Whats next? The kids are grown, the career is schlepping along and you wake up each day feeling just a little bit lost. What happened to the life you imagined when you were twenty-one, with all those years ahead of you? The good news: theyre still ahead of you. Women have the capacity to live two, or more, different and equally exciting lifetimes. Dreams and visions tend to morph over time. Guided by family and career experiences, we gain wisdom and perspective that was not possible for us in those early years. Amazingly, the future we perceive now is much more attainable because of those experiences. Stoke the Fire Promise yourself that from this moment on you will:1. Live and work a passionate life. What excites you right now, today? If its travel, promise yourself youll travel at least once a year, if only on weekends or to nearby, unexplored towns. If you yearn to pursue a latent talent, such as writing or music, make that pursuit a priority. If you crave a new career, look for opportunities to fan that flame.
2.Go for it or reject it outright. Make a plan and execute it. Quickly decide to go full-speed in pursuing your vision or to reject it and come up with a new goal you can attain. 3.Take action every day. Jump in! Spend 15 minutes daily on your action plan. Write only one page a day and you can finish a book in a year, but sitting down to write an entire book can feel too daunting to even begin. Start small, start now.4.Be a success student for life. Immerse yourself in a vision of your future and seek out the knowledge that will bring you to the next level. A travel enthusiast could learn about the culture, take a cooking class or host an exchange student. To expand your career or business, find a mentor or request new challenges outside of your daily job description. 5.Believe you can do anything. Believing is 90% of the win. If you believe that your next 40 years can be whatever you want to make them, no matter the challenges or what anyone else tells you, you will succeed.
The magic of these Five Promises is that they are not complex, they can work for any goal and, most importantly, they will instill the confidence necessary to succeed. By reaffirming these Five Promises every day, any woman can stoke the midlife fire and reinvent her life.

A map is not functional until you know where you are on it. Consultants that objectively view their current reality always find a way to reduce confusion and misalignment. Agreement with yourself and your clients about what is true right now—in your company, in your project, in your life—is critical for making clear headway.

Get a Grip

There’s an old saying: “what you resist, you’re stuck with.” I’ve noticed this is particularly true with creative consultants and their work. If you’re not clear what your current job really is and you’ve skipped doing a complete and thorough inventory, you’re going to have a hard time making things happen for your client.

“Real generosity toward the future
consists in giving all
to what is presen”.
- Albert Camus

What is your job, right now! What is the main priority today? It is seldom as obvious as you might think. You can best answer that one question by answering these six:

1) What are your current tasks? These may be physical actions you need to take right now about your commitments and responsibilities: phone calls, e-mails, converstations, errands, brainstorming ideas, and so on. Typically a busy consultant can have as much as one or two hundred of these to do.

2) What are your current projects? These are the outcomes you have agreed with yourself to achieve, remeber you are an independent professional and must keep your word to yourself. There’s no one setting your agenda, in fact you are being paid to set it. Now, which of these outcomes requires more than one action to complete. Most consultants have between thirty and one hundred of these.

3) What, exactly, are your current areas of responsibility? Most consultants have ten or fifteen, like staff development, asset management, planning oversight, customer service, etc. But you’re NOT running, nor are you responsible for the WHOLE company. Leave that to the owner or CEO.

4) How are your consulting responsibilities and your personal affairs going to be changing over the next year? I’ve found that the truly effective, high pound consultants I’ve known and worked with, have taken the time to mesh their work with their lives. You are a one person conglomerate, but also, a living-breathing human being that has ‘outside’ considerations for a well-rounded life. If you don’t consider consulting an extentsion of a real life, a flesh and blood existence, but rather, something altogether seperate, placed in a box called: ‘consulting work’, then you’ll fail most of the time and be very unhappy nearly all of the time.

5) How is this life I lead going to change over the next five years. This is the big picture question, the vision of how things should be, not necessarily how they will be, into the near future. Why is this important? Because, in the quest for the answer to our question above, namely, what is your job right now, we can get a nearly crystal clear answer when we extend our vision into a larger field. By this I mean, you can see if your current job selection is aiding you in your long-term visionary goal.

“It takes about ten years
to get used
to how old you are”.
– Unknown

If you ocmplete a thorough inventory of the ocmmitments, issues, and projects that currently exist in your ocnsultancy and life on earth, espeically in these six areas, you will have a good definition of your work. This isn’t easy stuff, I know. I’ve spent over fifteen hours just identifying my work on two mundane levels: current actions and projects. But wihtout doing these things I don’t feel prepared, nor am I prepared to have conversation with my clients.

It’s all very useful work, however, should I need to re-calibrate my job description or deal with needed changes along the way. So many people have just a vague desription or ‘feeling’ about what they want to do or be in the future. But without a reality based reference point of where they are, right now, they are like the Flying Dutchman, doomed to drift.

So, know where you are on the map, so you can determine if you need to turn right or left.

“Discipline does not mean suppression
and control, nor is it adjustment
to a pattern or ideology. It
maeans the mind sees
“what is” and learns from
“what is”.
– J. Krishnamurti

The Employment-at-Will Doctrine. Another Euphemism as our Language Fades into Irrelevance

States that have adopted this standard as a way of attracting businesses, have managed to do so without an outcry by the vast majority of voters, employees. After all, why should there be an objection? It sounds so fair and evenhanded on the surface. If you, the employee, no longer want to remain in your position, you simply move on after giving appropriate notice. No reason need be given, though youll no doubt be asked and will probably offer the least offensive one you can muster.

So, doesnt it follow that your employer should have that same right? If he or she decides one day they no longer want you around, shouldnt they have the option of sending you out into that big world with all its opportunity? Of course there are limits imposed by law on the reasons they can sever the relationship. These concern race, religion and various factors that are not appropriate cause for dismissal. But outside of these considerations, you are completely subject to the whims of your employer. Maybe youve decided to leave your job on a whim. Once again, seems so fair, no wonder the subject gains little attention.

Now maybe you and your boss didnt get along very well. Youve been drilled to keep those matters to yourself when you interview with prospective employers. This process reinforces to all employers that as a group theyre simply wonderful. No one ever has a complaint against any of them.

But surely, even if you werent well liked by the boss, he or she will restrict their comments to potential employers to job title, dates of employment, maybe salary history. Now this shouldnt be too damaging. Of course, if its a good job youre going after, youll be competing with others who were on much better terms with their bosses. These individuals are probably going to get accolades that make your dates of employment and the like seem like a barrage of 4 letter words.

Bosses who are more daring and determined to make your life a bit harder, can offer negative feedback on your performance. It must be true and subject to verification. If the boss has it in for you, this can be accomplished very easily, as anyone who has ever seen a scapegoat taken down in an organization can attest. And of course, theres the clincher, a negative response to the question of whether the person is eligible for rehire. If the answer is no, dont bother pressing your suit for the second interview.

You may choose to criticize the organization every chance you get among friends and strangers, but that wont stem the tide of applicants whenever they advertise a position. Your future is in their hands, not vice versa. And even with the scale tipped so decisively in favor of the employer, there are state legislatures attempting to make it easier for them to divulge more about you without any recourse on your part.

So, does the Employment-at-Will Doctrine create the balance between employer and employee that it seems to on the surface? No. It does bring businesses to your state though, ensuring as it does a docile workforce. Docile and insecure, for when you can be dismissed for any reason, your family and you have no reason to feel secure.

How will Trucks look in the future look? Lets see some real examples of innovations and prototypes. The most important aspect is the energy source. The energetic crisis and the pollution are the two axles for the engineers of the future.

Westport Innovation, a company specializing in environmental technologies, recently implemented the High Pressure Direct Injection technology for diesel trucks. This technology consists of a liquefied natural gas powered truck to reduce the gas emissions and economizes the fuel. The trucks have 400 hp Cummins ISX engines with Exhaust Gas Recirculation. That results in a quiet, efficient and clean travel.

The company Daimler Chrysler in Germany is also working on the fuel use and no pollution engines. Blue Tec is the name of the new technology according to the Daimler Chrysler web site. This technology combines the engine design with the Selective Catalytic Reduction which is a system to reduce the nitrogen oxides emissions. Blue Tech is a diesel technology specially designed for the truck division of Mercedes Benz.

Some leave the fuel alternatives to others and go for the rest of the engine, especially the Department of Energy. The idea is to separate parts such as the pumps, the alternators, compressors and such from the engine. This way you can transform those parts from gas to full electric. A cooler engine compartment will extend the life of the engine. Also the independent electrical powered parts would work more precisely.

Big manufacturing companies are collaborating with the Department of Energy such as Caterpillar, Kenworth, Emerson and Engineered Machine Products. The prototype is installed on a Kenworth truck and the experts could eliminate more than 65 parts by more precise and reliable components.

Now on to driver control. In the recent Volvo Showcase, the company demonstrated its new ESP system which helps the driver do what he does best, drive. The system perceives the maneuvers of the drivers and corrects the movements of the truck by braking the wheels or brings down the power of the engine.

The ESP system includes three cameras installed on the driver’s cab and in the steering wheels. The cameras are in charge of watching for the drowsiness of the driver and the inconstant maneuvers and it produces a warning to the driver.

The steering systems are also targeted by the innovators. For example, SKF proposed an electromechanical steering system instead of the conventional hydraulic system. This invention consists in a sequence of signals that tell the actuator to steer the wheels. The action is confirmed or adjusted by sensors and informed back to the driver. The advantages of the electromechanical system are to eliminate the hydraulic fluids so there would be no more high pressure leaks and less noise in the driver’s cab.

These continuous changes and improvements in the truck industry still keep function as the number one focus. The replacement of the human driver by a mechanic one is still considerably far away. Fortunately, that’s something for the future.