That setup does not work well in the workplace because your colleagues do not want to pick up your slack, and your employer could possibly give you a poor evaluation or terminate you because of your lack of participation. Prepare to excel in group projects well before college and when you get into your career field.

Everyone, and I mean everyone, has his or her own particular strength. The leader of the group, which is usually obvious in the beginning of the process, should get each member of the group to write down what part of the project interests him or her most. If the interest in each person is identified, that’s usually also that person’s strength. People want to work on things they are good at doing.

Let each person create their own task list for their portion of the project. Set a deadline for the entire group to get together and present that task. These two simple steps will get the project completed without some people participating and others not.

In the workplace, everyone must participate. Employers notice if someone is slacking and who is apt to take the lead role in group projects. Practice being a good team leader now, so you’ll be an excellent team leader in the future.

Runchey, a now successful publicist in LA, will talk to us about a time two years ago her and her mother were caught in the middle of a police shootout at a Detroit grocery store. This experience motivated her to pack up her car and follow her dream career.

Despite the hardships of the economy, Runchey landed a job with a PR firm that has represented 58 Oscar Winners since 1983.

Currently, Runchey is  now working, for the second time, on Michael Moore’s film festival and recently won the Bulldog award (The Oscar of the PR industry) for best arts and entertainment campaign for the 2009 North American KISS tour.  KISS is kicking off their 2010 North American tour in four weeks.

Join Lee Runchey and the Collegiate Career Coach tonight for a motivational and inspirational online discussion.

The owner immediately got defensive and said, “Well, they are going to have to come whether they want to or not.”

As a business owner myself, I know that it’s sometimes difficult when someone does not agree with your plans or your ideas. Sometimes it’s just simply that a particular person doesn’t see the vision you have for your business. But when things are forced upon people, they usually show resistance. Let’s face it…no one like to be told what to do.

I thought about a possible solution. If the owner and the coordinator sat down with each employee and allowed them to give input, they would probably feel more included and want to be more productive. It might seem that this technique is putting all of the power in the hands of the employees. But it’s not. It’s creating a productive work environment where everyone is happy and everyone wants to participate because they felt included.

I realize that I could easily choose to complain about cabin fever, having nothing to do, and the tree branches I hear collapsing onto my roof. But I can’t complain because the time off has given me an opportunity to relax and focus on projects in which I’m really passionate about. I’ve gotten a lot of work done on my novel and worked on some business ideas I’d been thinking of putting together for the longest time. I’ve rested my mind and organized my paperwork for school. I am truly grateful!

You are!

Whether you are a teacher or a student, your own responsibility lies within you.

One of my students came into class today without anything – without the textbook, without a pen or pencil, and without any paper or notebook. I asked him, “Where are your things?” He looked at me curiously and said, “At home….”

Just as my blood pressure began to rise over a student coming to class unprepared, I changed my perspective and my reaction. I said,” Well, just like it’s my responsibility to be prepared to teach you, it’s your responsibility to be prepared to learn. It’s like a pact we made when you signed up for the class. So, I’m going to be standing up here doing what I do, and hopefully you can take action right now to be as prepared as you possibly can with the resources around you.”

He said, “What resources? I didn’t bring anything.”

I said, “There are 19 other students in this classroom right now. What items do they have that you don’t have right now?”

He said, “They have everything I don’t have.”

I said, “Okay, so who might be able to help you get what you need?”

Then the lightbulb turned on in his head. He smiled. He asked the girl next to him for paper and a pen. Then he asked her if she could share her book. He raised his hand to answer every question I asked throughout the class period. And he was very eager to pay attention and participate in the discussion.

With both of us fulfilling our end of our own responsibility, learning happened for both of us. He learned his responsibility, and I learned not to let my blood pressure rise in a situation that seemed incomprehensible at the time.

Take this situation as an example…….

For the past month or so, a collegue of mine and I have been working on the unveiling of a new pilot course. The technology program works with our remedial writing class and makes paper submissions, grading, and teaching grammar easier for both the students and the instructor.

During winter break, my colleague and I worked diligently with the publishing company to put this pilot class together. This included online training and a few meetings for us to understand the program. Then, we went into the program and tailored it to fit our curriculum. We also created an extremely detailed course outline so students could follow along with the tasks they’d be completing on a day to day basis.

With everything prepared down to the very last detail, we couldn’t possibly be prepared for the monsoon like rain storm we had yesterday in South Jersey. I can’t even count the amount of times my umbrella turned inside out on my way to the class, but by the time I arrived to class, I was drenched….along with our department secretary and the three representatives from the publishing company, who had traveled three hours to get to my class to help train the students.

We decided to meet 30 minutes before the class started. We set up all of the computers so that all the students had to do when they got to the class was sit in front of them, look up at the monitor in the front of the classroom, and follow directions.

Well, that’s not what actually took place. As soon as all the students got to class, the power went out. With the exception of four computers that were apparently running off of the back up generator, everything was off….including the lights. Thinking quickly, we decided to rotate the students onto these four computers and let them leave after they registered for the software program. Quickly after the second group of students got onto the computers to register, those four computers went out as well.

How did the students react to the situation? They became flexible. They took the directions and registered at home. They listened carefully and took notes in the dark before they were dismissed from class.

Although the students might not even realize it, they learned a very important lesson that they can apply throughout life. They learned how to remain calm when things seem to be chaotic. They made a decision that they were going to have enough confidence in themselves to try the new program at home and complete the assignment for homework. They made a decision that they were going to become flexible.