Word Used in Sentence(s)
(1) “Two months before, halfway around the globe in Provence, France, I meet another enthusiast of all things American, Marc Lassus. He is the chief of Gemplus, a manufacturer of ‘smart cards,’ which can be used as electronic money to purchase telephone time or to store information such as medical records. It’s nearly midnight, and I watch him exhort his factory workers to act more American. The typical French executive treats manual laborers with veiled contempt, but Lassus revels in them, working the factory floor like a politician. He betrays his nationality only when it comes to greeting the female machine operators: He kisses them lustily. Lassus fights the impulse to be, in his words, ‘too Frenchie.’ Incredibly, he often speaks English on the job and encourages his co-workers to do the same.”
—Zachary, G. Pascal. 1999. The World Gets in Touch with Its Inner American. Mother Jones 24 (1): 50.
Collocates to: inform, workers, speak, billboards, motivate, mutually
(2) spread out; open up; stretch out; unfold
(3) make greater in size; bulk, scope; enlarge; dilate; extend
(4) work out or show the full form of
Word Used in Sentence(s)
(1) A job search should start with maximum expansion of one’s personal network.
(2) to look for as due, proper, as necessary
(3) to suppose, presume, guess
Word Used in Sentence(s)
(1) A career-minded person should expect excellence from themselves.
(1) Great managers expect excellence and never settle for mediocrity.
(1) Most employers expect candidates to have a familiarity with technology.
Word Used in Sentence(s)
(1) “Nothing ever becomes real ‘til it is experienced.”
—John Keats, English romantic poet (1795–1821)
(1) “How many things do you have to experience before something occurs to you?”
—Robert Frost, American poet (1874–1963)
(2) make clear, plain, or explainable
(3) give the meaning of; explain
(4) account for; state the reasons for
EXPLORE
(1) delve; dig; discover; examine carefully; inquiry; investigate; look into closely; probe; scout; search
(2) search carefully, systematically, or scientifically
(3) travel in an area completely new in order to learn about the geography, history, culture, people
Word Used in Sentence(s)
(1) College students should explore internships with firms and industries of interest.
(1) “A professional career counselor can help a job seeker explore and integrate gender, sexual orientation, socio economic status, ethnicity, spirituality, culture, disabilities, and/or social/familial influences into career choices.”
—National Career Development Association. 2009. Why Seek Career Counseling, Consumer Information (July 23). http://ncda.org/aws/NCDA/pt/sd/news_article/5586/_PARENT/layout_details_search/false (accessed December 14, 2012).
(1) “A professional career counselor can help a job seeker explore life styles, sense of meaning, and contributions to society.”
—National Career Development Association. 2009. Why Seek Career Counseling, Consumer Information (July 23). http://ncda.org/aws/NCDA/pt/sd/news_article/5586/_PARENT/layout_details_search/false (accessed December 14, 2012).
(1) “Career development is a continuous life process through which individuals explore activities, make decisions, and assume a variety of roles. Careers are formulated by the continuous evaluation of personal goals and the perception, assessment, and decisions regarding opportunities to achieve those goals. Career development occurs as educational and vocational pursuits interact with personal goals. It continues over the life span.”
—Process of Career Development, Policy and Procedures Manual, August 2012, p. 7.
(2) lay open; leave unprotected; make accessible
Word Used in Sentence(s)
(1) “The discrepancy between the chief executive’s perspective of the glass ceiling and that of most successful women at their companies exposes the extent of the problem. In fact, women are more than twice as likely as CEOs to consider factors in the culture of the job itself as barriers to advancement.”
—Wellington, Sheila. 2001. Be Your Own Mentor. New York: Random House, 13.
EXPOUND
(1) explain or interpret; expand; develop; set forth point by point; put forward for consideration; state in detail
Word Used in Sentence(s)
(1) The résumé is not the place to expound on one’s skills, abilities, and experience; that can be done in the interview.
Word Used in Sentence(s)
(1) “It’s easy to let life deteriorate into making a living instead of making a life. It’s not the hours you put in, but what you out into the hours that count. Learn to express rather than impress. Expressing evokes a ‘me too’ attitude while impressing evokes a ‘so what’ attitude.”
—Jim Rohn, American speaker and author
Word Used in Sentence(s)
(1) “Desire will in due time externalize itself as concrete fact.”
—Thomas Troward, British author (1847–1916)
Word Used in Sentence(s)
(1) “That sign of old age, extolling the past at the expense of the present.”
—Sydney Smith, English clergyman, essayist (1771–1845)
(2) to arrive at conclusion or results by hypothesizing from known facts or observations
Word Used in Sentence(s)
(1), (2) “What career counseling is can be contrasted with and extrapolated from what it is not.”
—Crites, John O. 1981. Career Counseling, Models, Methods, and Materials. New York: McGraw Hill, 12.
Collocates to: can, data, difficult, findings, from, motion, results
FACE
(1) confront; defy; front; grimace; look on; encounter; recognize and deal with straightforwardly
(2) turn the face in a specified direction
Word Used in Sentence(s)
(1) “All idealism is falsehood in the face of necessity.”
—Friedrich Nietzsche, German classical scholar, philosopher, and critic of culture (1844–1900)
(1) “Each time we face our fear, we gain strength, courage, and confidence in the doing.”
—Unknown
(1) “The obstacles you face are... mental barriers which can be broken by adopting a more positive approach.”
—Unknown
Word Used in Sentence(s)
(1) Facilitating and managing meetings are important leadership skills.
FAMILIARIZE
(1) accustom; aware of; bring into the light; conversant with; disseminate; make acquainted; make famous; make known; publicize
Word Used in Sentence(s)
(1) “The ability of writers to imagine what is not the self, to familiarize the strange and mystify the familiar, is the test of their power.”
—Toni Morrison, American writer, teacher, and editor (1931–)
(1) “Men on their side must force themselves for a while to lay their notions by and begin to familiarize themselves with facts.”
—Francis Bacon, Sr., English lawyer and philosopher (1561–1626)
(1) Candidates for a job should familiarize themselves with the industry of the potential hiring firm, the supply chain, and the firm’s history.
Word Used in Sentence(s)
(1) “The practice of coaching and mentoring strives to fashion an army of resilient workers capable of quickly getting up off the ground when they get knocked down.”
—Nigro, Nicholas. 2003. The Everyday Coaching and Mentoring Book. Avon, MA: Adams Media, 8.
(1) “The purpose of coaching and mentoring is to unlock human potential on the job by fashioning a work environment that is most conducive to helping employees reach their personal best.”
—Nigro, Nicholas. 2003. The Everything Coaching and Mentoring Book. Avon, MA: Adams Media Corp., 59.
Word Used in Sentence(s)
(1) In some cases, the best candidates could be fast tracked into certain positions.
FEEDBACK
(1) get information; response to a query; input by request; offer ideas, suggestions, recommendations, etc, in response to inquiries, performances, experiments, position, papers, etc.
Word Used in Sentence(s)
(1) Managers must be prepared to feedback to their direct reports any concerns spotted during monitoring.
FIX
(1) affix; arrange; assign; attach; blame; fasten; impute; pin on; place saddle; produce deep impression; secure
(2) engrave
(3) mend; restore; replace
Word Used in Sentence(s)
(1) “Just fixing people does not work. Nor do auditing and measurement because they turn off the brain’s relationship building switches. So how do you create sustainability and keep yourself moving forward? The answer is to remember the hope, joy, and love the will come from meeting the desired goal—this is what triggers passion and makes you feel most alive.”
—Hayashi, Shawn Kent. 2012. Conversations for Creating Star Performers. New York: McGraw Hill, 13.
(1) “Normal people ... believe that if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. Engineers believe that if it ain’t broke, it doesn’t have enough features yet.”
—Scott Adams, American cartoonist (1957–)
Word Used in Sentence(s)
(1) “Coaching is about creating a positive path forward: it focuses on the future (not the past, unless to learn from it).”
—Cook, Marshall J., and Laura Poole. 2008. Effective Coaching. 2nd ed. New York: McGraw Hill, 16.
(1) Focusing on solutions will help you become collaborative and team oriented.
(1) A career coach’s client seeking a management position needs to demonstrate many skills, including interpersonal, technical, conceptual, process, systems, operational, a strategic focus, and discipline.
(1) “It’s not what’s happening to you now or what has happened in your past that determines who you become. Rather, it’s your decisions about what to focus on, what things mean to you, and what you’re going to do about them that will determine your ultimate destiny.”
—Anthony Robbins, American advisor to leaders
FOLLOW
(1) abide by; adhere; comply; conform; continue in the direction of another; do as someone else has done; emulate; keep mind; model; obey; observe; pattern; pursue
(2) sign up as one who receives tweet digital messages
Word Used in Sentence(s)
(1) “In a style called the directive coaching style the coach is considered the master of the session. As such, the giving of instructions, decision-making, action plans, and many other things are primarily done by the coach. The client follows the coach’s instruction and adheres to the solution(s) provided. Even the feedback is given in a manner of giving instructions, telling the client what to do and what not to do. In this style, the structure of the coaching process is mostly inflexible.”
—Exforsys Inc. 2010. About Different Coaching and Mentoring Styles (December 26). http://www.exforsys.com/career-center/coaching-mentoring/coaching-and-mentoring-styles.html (accessed March 28, 2013).
(1) “You cannot be a leader, and ask other people to follow you, unless you know how to follow, too.”
—Sam Rayburn, American politician and lawyer (1882–1961)
Word Used with Rhythm and Imagery
• Repetition—“We herd sheep, we drive cattle, we lead people. Lead me, follow me, or get out of my way” (General George S. Patton, American general in World Wars I and II, 1885–1945).
Word Used in Sentence(s)
(1) “It was character that got us out of bed, commitment that moved us into action, and discipline that enabled us to follow through.”
—Zig Ziglar, American motivational speaker and author (1919–2012)
Word Used with Rhythm and Imagery
• Anaphoric—“I can give you a six-word formula for success: “Think things through—then follow through.”
(2) create; build; fashion; form
(3) move ahead steadily
(4) counterfeit; copy; falsify; fake
Word Used in Sentence(s)
(1), (2) “It was through one employee-resource group Women’s Initiative Network (WIN) that Ms. Ackererly forged a strong professional bond with members of the firm’s powerful global executive committee.”
—Lublin, Joann. 2012. To Climb the Ladder, Try Joining a Group, Careers. Wall Street Journal, December 26.
(1), (2) “People are more inclined to be drawn in if their leader has a compelling vision. Great leaders help people get in touch with their own aspirations and then will help them forge those aspirations into a personal vision.”
—John Kotter, American author (1947–)
(1), (2) “I don’t believe in pessimism. If something doesn’t come up the way you want, forge ahead. If you think it’s going to rain, it will.”
—Clint Eastwood, American actor, producer, and writer (1930–)
FORMULATE
(1) articulate; contrive; create; devise; develop; draft; elaborate; express; frame; put into words or expressions; invent; make; originate; plan; prepare; verbalize; voice
Word Used in Sentence(s)
(1) To formulate a business plan, you first need to create a long-term business strategy.
(1) “Formulate and stamp indelibly on your mind a mental picture of yourself succeeding. Hold this picture tenaciously. Never permit it to fade. Your mind will seek to develop the picture...Do not build up obstacles in your imagination.”
—Norman Vincent Peale, American protestant clergyman and writer (1898–1993)
(1) “Freedom is not merely the opportunity to do as one pleases; neither is it merely the opportunity to choose between set alternatives. Freedom is, first of all, the chance to formulate the available choices, to argue over them—and then, the opportunity to choose.”
—C. Wright Mills, American sociologist (1916–1962)
Word Used in Sentence(s)
(1) “Coaching in the workplace can create a positive environment in which employees are empowered, engaged, and valued. In teams, coaching can foster better communication, synergetic thinking, and productivity.”
—Cook, Marshall J., and Laura Poole. 2011. Effective Coaching. 2nd ed. New York: McGraw Hill, 1.
(1) “Volunteer activities can foster enormous leadership skills. The non professional volunteer world is a laboratory for self-realization.”
—Mae West, American actress (1892–1980)
(1) “Western society has accepted as unquestionable a technological imperative that is quite as arbitrary as the most primitive taboo: not merely the duty to foster invention and constantly to create technological novelties, but equally the duty to surrender to these novelties unconditionally, just because they are offered, without respect to their human consequences.”
—Lewis Mumford, American writer (1895–1990)
(1) “Leaders foster collaboration by promoting cooperative goals and building trust.”
—Kouzes, James, and Barry Posner. 1999. The Leadership Challenge. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass Publishers, 17.
FULFILL
(1) carry out; complete an assignment; discharge; execute; exercise; implement; perform; satisfy
Word Used in Sentence(s)
(1) Employees fulfill their responsibilities when they work each day toward helping the company achieve its mission.
(1) “We must make the choices that enable us to fulfill the deepest capacities of our real selves.”
—Thomas Merton, American and trappist monk (1915–1968)
(1) “Man is asked to make of himself what he is supposed to become to fulfill his destiny.”
—Paul Tillich, American theologian and philosopher (1886–1965)
GAIN
(1) acquire; attain; build up; develop; go forward; increase; obtain possession of; reach a goal or objective
Word Used in Sentence(s)
(1) “A professional career counselor can help a job seeker gain awareness and knowledge of self by assessing interests, abilities/transferable skills, values, and personality as they relate to career choices.”
—National Career Development Association. 2009. Why Seek Career Counseling, Consumer Information (July 23). http://ncda.org/aws/NCDA/pt/sd/news_article/5586/_PARENT/layout_details_search/false (accessed December 14, 2012).
(1) “The critical question is whether you can really affect you employer’s fortunes through an employee-resources group and gain greater visibility for doing so...”
—Lublin, Joann. 2012. To Climb the Ladder, Try Joining a Group, Careers. Wall Street Journal, December 26.
(1) The realities of this low-growth economy may mean no gain in employment opportunities for many.
GARNER
(1) accumulate; acquire; assemble; bring together; bunch up; collect; gain; gather; get; harvest; heap; earn; reap
Word Used in Sentence(s)
(1) “Work and live to serve others, to leave the world a little better than you found it and garner for yourself as much peace of mind as you can. This is happiness.”
—David Sarnoff, American inventor (1891–1971)
(1) “Garner up pleasant thoughts in your mind, for pleasant thoughts make pleasant lives.”
—John Wilkins, English clergyman, natural philosopher, and author (1914–1972)
(2) draw a conclusion
Word Used in Sentence(s)
(1) “A professional career counselor can help a job seeker gather, summarize, and process information about occupations as they relate to nature of work, working conditions, job market, world and US job trends, employment outlook, earnings and salary, educational/academic training, and related occupations.”
—National Career Development Association. 2009. Why Seek Career Counseling, Consumer Information (July 23). http://ncda.org/aws/NCDA/pt/sd/news_article/5586/_PARENT/layout_details_search/false (accessed December 14, 2012).
(1) Career counselors and mentors should encourage their clients and protégés to gather the kinds of personal and professional data necessary to make rational career decisions.
GAUGE
(1) determine; estimate; guess; judge something or someone; measure; standard scale or measure; weigh
Word Used in Sentence(s)
(1) “Instead of focusing on the external characteristics of others, you focus on their inner feelings, particularly as it is reflected in their behavior and expressions. You gauge the thoughts in another’s mind and the feelings in their hearts by carefully watching what they say and do. When you have this kind of vision, you become concerned primarily with the deeper feelings and motivations of the other person.”
—Ambrose Bierce, American writer, journalist, and editor (1842–1914)
GENERATE
(1) begat; breed; bring into being; cause; create; develop; engender; hatch; induce; make; produce; provoke; spawn; stir; touch off
Word Used in Sentence(s)
(1) “A professional career counselor can help a job seeker generate career options and alternative plans as needed.”
—National Career Development Association. 2009. Why Seek Career Counseling, Consumer Information (July 23). http://ncda.org/aws/NCDA/pt/sd/news_article/5586/_PARENT/layout_details_search/false (accessed December 14, 2012).
(1) “In brainstorming, team members actively generate as many ideas and alternatives as possible, and do so relatively quickly and without inhibitions.”
—Schermerhorn, John, Richard Osborn, Mary UHL-Bien, and James Hunt. 2012. Organizational Behavior. 12th ed. New York: John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 189.
GET
(1) achieve; acquire; come by; earn; gain; land; obtain; pick up; possess; procure; reach; secure; win
Word Used in Sentence(s)
(1) “Always continue the climb. It is possible for you to do whatever you choose, if you first get to know who you are and are willing to work with a power that is greater than ourselves to do it.”
—Ella Wheeler Wilcox, American author and poet (1850–1919)
(1) “If I don’t like a man I know I must get to know him better.”
—Abraham Lincoln, 16th president of the United States (1809–1865)
GIVE
(1) allot; apply; bestow; deliver; distribute; donate; gift: grant; hand off; mete out; offer; present; set aside; transfer turn over
Word Used in Sentence(s)
(1) “Your work is to discover your work and then with all your heart to give yourself to it.”
—Buddha, Hindu Prince Gautama Siddharta, the founder of Buddhism (563 BC–483 BC)
(2) clasp; come to grips with; grip; tackle; fight; seize; snatch; struggle with; wrestle with
Word Used in Sentence(s)
(1), (2) Job seekers should grasp opportunities as they arise.
(1), (2) “A coach is required to be empathetic. That is, you’ve got to grasp fundamental human psychology and recognize the importance of elevating both body and soul to get the job done, and done right. And showing empathy for a fellow human being is not something that can be readily gleaned by reading a book or attending a seminar.”
—Nigro, Nicholas. 2003. The Everything Coaching and Mentoring Book. Avon, MA: Adams Media Corp., 58.
GROW
(1) breed; cultivate; develop into maturity; grow bigger, taller, older, more mature; nurture; produce; raise
(2) develop; enlarge; escalate; expand; extend; get bigger; increase in size; intensify; multiply; spread; strengthen; swell
Word Used in Sentence(s)
(1) As you grow as an employee, you should share your experiences, knowledge, and skills with others.
(2) escort; lead; pilot; route; surround; show; steer; supervise; usher
Word Used in Sentence(s)
(1) “Other people may be there to help us, teach us, guide us along our path, but the lesson to be learned is always ours.”
—Unknown
(1) “To effectively communicate, we must realize that we are all different in the way we perceive the world and use this understanding as a guide to our communication with others.”
—Anthony Robbins, American advisor to leaders
(1) “Your goals are the road maps that guide you and show you what is possible for your life.”
—Les Brown, American author, entrepreneur, and motivational speaker
HANDLE
(1) carry out; come to grips with; conduct; control; cope with; deal with; have overall influence; responsibility; manage; manipulate; ply; process; run; see to; sort out; supervise; undertake; wield
(2) feel; finger; hold; manage with the hands; touch
Word Used in Sentence(s)
(1) “Handle them carefully, for words have more power than atom bombs.”
—Pearl Strachan Hurd
(1) “If you procrastinate when faced with a big difficult problem... break the problem into parts, and handle one part at a time.”
—Robert Collier, American motivational author (1885–1950)
(2) attach with a harness to something
(3) gather or put together resources to accomplish a goal or an objective
Word Used in Sentence(s)
(1) A job search is a discovery of the kind of work which will harness what energizes the person.
Word Used with Rhythm and Imagery
• Repetition—“Normal fear protects us; abnormal fear paralyses us. Normal fear motivates us to improve our individual and collective welfare; abnormal fear constantly poisons and distorts our inner lives. Our problem is not to be rid of fear but, rather to harness and master it” (Martin Luther King, Jr., American Baptist minister and civil-rights leader, 1929–1968).
(2) administer; be in charge; command; control; direct; govern; handle; lead; manage; oversee; regulate; rule; run; to have charge of; superintend; supervise; watch
Word Used in Sentence(s)
(1) Before you can head an organization, you should know how it runs.
HIGHLIGHT
(1) bring to light; draw attention to; emphasize; point out important issues; show up; underline; underscore
Word Used in Sentence(s)
(1) The Bureau of Labor Statistics Occupational Outlook Handbook highlights the various occupational opportunities in 900 pages of information.
Word Used in Sentence(s)
(1) “I appreciate Mr. Sessions’ letter, but I’m afraid that he misunderstands my point. Hiring an outsider is a strategy for change, certainly. The question, though, is what kind of change, and how successful will it be? My key finding is both best and worst leaders and unfiltered (and they are often, but not always outsiders). So, yes, outsiders bring change, but it’s not always change that anyone would want.”
—Kader, Abdul. 2012. Regional Health and Wellness Director (NC) Walmart, US, The Best Leaders Have Short Résumés, Interaction. Harvard Business Review (December): 18.
(1) “The prudent, penniless beginner in the world labors for wages awhile, saves a surplus with which to buy tools or land for himself, then labors on his own account another while, and at length hires another new beginner to help him. This is the just and generous and prosperous system which opens the way to all, gives hope to all, and consequently energy and progress and improvement of condition to all.”
—Von Drehle, David. 2012. Abraham Lincoln’s Address to Wisconsin State Agriculture Society, 1859, The Emancipation Proclamation and the “Right to Rise.” Wall Street Journal, December 29.
IDENTIFY
(1) associate; empathize; make out; mark; recognize; relate; place; point out with certainty; see; spot
(2) categorize; classify; name
(3) ascertain; designate; detect; discover; find; isolate; pinpoint
(4) distinguish; make something stand out; set apart; single out
Word Used in Sentence(s)
(1–4) Mentors should identify and label a protégé’s talents and strengths and then communicate these insights to him or her.
(1–4) “A professional career counselor can help a job seeker identify and become familiar with various educational and career related resources (i.e. internet, printed materials).”
—National Career Development Association. 2009. Why Seek Career Counseling, Consumer Information (July 23). http://ncda.org/aws/NCDA/pt/sd/news_article/5586/_PARENT/layout_details_search/false (accessed December 14, 2012).
(1–4) “Conceptual skills includes the ability to see and understand how systems work and how their parts are interrelated, including human dynamics. Conceptual skill is used to identify problems and opportunities, gather and interpret relevant information and make good problem-solving decisions.”
—Schermerhorn, John, Richard Osborn, Mary UHL-Bien, and James Hunt. 2012. Organizational Behavior. 12th ed. New York: John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 4.
(1–4) “Makela notes that many career professionals identify with more than one professional association and references multiple ethics resources as a way to enhance ethical sensitivity and awareness.”
—Buzzeta, Mary, and J. P. Makela. 2009. A Case Study Approach to Ethics in Career Development: Exploring Shades of Gray, Book Review. Career Coverage Magazine, NCDA. http://associationdatabase.com/aws/NCDA/pt/sd/news_article/29424/_PARENT/layout_details_cc/false (accessed December 29, 2012).
Word Used in Sentence(s)
(1) If managers can illustrate how and why employees personally benefit by self-motivating themselves to produce better results, then it demonstrates the effectiveness of using influence as a tool.
IMAGINE
(1) conceive; envisage; envision; fancy; fantasize; feature; guess; image; picture; plan; see; suppose; scheme; think; vision; visualize
Word Used in Sentence(s)
(1) Individuals have to imagine their success; they have to see themselves being successful or it most likely will not happen.
Word Used in Sentence(s)
(1) “We should imbibe inspiring thoughts and should follow the righteous path. If this is done then progress is sure and certain.”
—Yajur Veda, one of the four canonical texts of Hinduism, the Vedas. By some, it is estimated to have been composed between 1000 BCE and 600 BCE.
(1) “We should imbibe the good qualities of great people and then bring them into practice. By doing so we can achieve success in all our pursuits.”
—Yajur Veda, one of the four canonical texts of Hinduism, the Vedas. By some, it is estimated to have been composed between 1000 BCE and 600 BCE.
(1) “Returning to D.H. Lawrence, and his stories of the town, I visited the Inn of the Turquoise Bear, formerly owned by poet Witter Bynner, a close friend of Lawrence. Bynner, as yet another story tells it, came into possession of Lawrence’s ashes after the writer’s death. Either delusions of grandeur or desert heat got to Bynner, and he began stirring a spoonful of the writer’s ashes into his tea each morning in an effort to somehow imbibe Lawrence’s poetry. As the current owner said, ‘D.H. Lawrence’s final resting place may very possibly be at the bottom of the outhouse in my backyard.’”
—Fink, Bill. 2005. TRAVEL Opening Doors to the Essence of Santa Fe » In the Capital of New Mexico, the Old World Meets the New World, But Visitors Have to Peel Away Layers to Go Beyond Clichés and Find the City’s Heart. Houston Chronicle GOOD LIFE, May 15.
IMBUE
(1) defuse; hue; indoctrinate; influence; inspire thoroughly; instill; penetrate; pervade; soak; tinge
Word Used in Sentence(s)
(1) “Education would be much more effective if its purpose was to ensure that by the time they leave school every boy and girl should know how much they do not know, and be imbued with a lifelong desire to know it.”
—William Haley
(2) affect
Word Used in Sentence(s)
(1) “Physical strength can never permanently withstand the impact of spiritual force.”
—Franklin D. Roosevelt, 32nd U.S. President (1882–1945)
IMPART
(1) bestow a quality; bring; communicate; convey; disclose; divulge; expose; give a share or portion; inform; instruct; make known; pass on; report; reveal; teach; tell
Word Used in Sentence(s)
(1) Career coaches and mentors impart the ways their clients and protégés can approach their opportunities; the clients and protégé still have to take the steps.
(1) “The good teacher discovers the natural gifts of his pupils and liberates them by the stimulating influence of the inspiration that he can impart. The true leader makes his followers twice the men they were before.”
—Stephen Neill, Scottish, Anglican missionary, bishop, and scholar (1900–1984)
IMPLEMENT
(1) accomplished; apply; carry out; completed; effected; employ; enforce; execute; fulfill; finished; instigate; put into action; put into operation; put into place use; put into practice; put into service; realize
Word Used in Sentence(s)
(1) “It is not always what we know or analyzed before we make a decision that makes it a great decision. It is what we do after we make the decision to implement and execute it that makes it a good decision.”
—William Pollard, American physicist and an Episcopal priest (1911–1989)
IMPRESS
(1) astonish; astound; amaze; din in; drive home; drum in; fix an idea into one’s mind; imprint; inculcate; pound; prompt; make clear
Word Used in Sentence(s)
(1) “I am among those who think that science has great beauty. A scientist in his laboratory is not only a technician: he is also a child placed before natural phenomena which impress him like a fairy tale.”
—Marie Curie, French physicist (1867–1934)
(1) “It’s easy to let life deteriorate into making a living instead of making a life. It’s not the hours you put in, but what you out into the hours that count. Learn to express rather than impress. Expressing evokes a ‘me too’ attitude while impressing evokes a ‘so what’ attitude.”
—Jim Rohn, American speaker and author
IMPROVE
(1) ameliorate; amend; better; build up; develop; employ; enhance in value; enrich; expand; further; help; get better; increase; make better; meliorate; perfect; raise to a better quality; upgrade use
(2) convalesce; get better; get stronger; get well; make progress; mend; perk up; rally; recover
Word Used in Sentence(s)
(1) “When you are through improving... you are through.”
—Arab proverb
(1) “The ‘Inside-Out’ approach to personal and interpersonal effectiveness means to start first with self; even more fundamentally, to start with the most inside part of self / with your paradigms, your character, and your motives. The inside-out approach says that private victories precede public victories, that making and keeping promises to ourselves precedes making and keeping promises to others. It says it is futile to put personality ahead of character, to try to improve relationships with others before improving ourselves.”
—Stephen R. Covey, American educator, author, businessman, and keynote speaker (1932–2012)
IMPROVISE
(1) ad-lib; extemporize; fake; make; invent or arrange offhand; fabricate out of what is conveniently on hand; spur of the moment
Word Used in Sentence(s)
(1) “In the long history of humankind (and animal kind, too) those who learned to collaborate and improvise most effectively have prevailed.”
—Charles Darwin, English naturalist and author (1809–1882)
(2) accuse; allege; assert; challenge; charge; cite; implicate
Word Used in Sentence(s)
(1) “However evil men may be they dare not be openly hostile to virtue, and so when they want to attack it they pretend to find it spurious, or impute crimes to it.”
—François de la Rochefoucauld, French classical author (1613–1680)
INAUGURATE
(1) begin officially; create; establish; induct; initial steps; install; introduce; open; put in place; set up; start; swear in
Word Used in Sentence(s)
(1) “Next year the stainless steel division will inaugurate a pilot strip-casting project, a technological improvement over continuous casting that cools the steel in super thin sheets, instead of slabs that have to be rolled. Potential cost savings: as much as 700 francs per ton. The Americans abandoned a similar project two years ago, says Aristide Berthet, managing director of Usinor-Sacilor’s central research group.”
—Jereski, L. 1990. A Gallic Threat for American Steel. Forbes 146 (12) (November 26): 144–146.
Collocates to: annual, center, era, helped, laws, museum, new, officially, period, series
Word Used in Sentence(s)
(1) The government should incentivize the private sector to create jobs.
(1) “‘I know that there are a lot of experts who may disagree about how to get to universal health care,’ she said. ‘But they agree with me that in the absence of universal health care it’s very difficult to control costs, and it’s extremely hard to incentivize quality improvements at the level you need to really see results.’”
—Sack, Kevin. 2008. If Elected.... New York Times, March 28.
(2) admit; add in; assimilate; bring in; enter; incorporate; involve; rope in
Word Used in Sentence(s)
(1) “Freedom is not worth having if it does not include the freedom to make mistakes.”
—Mohandas Gandhi, Indian preeminent leader of Indian nationalism (1869–1948)
(1) “It is important that an aim never be defined in terms of activity or methods. It must always relate directly to how life is better for everyone... The aim of the system must be clear to everyone in the system. The aim must include plans for the future. The aim is a value judgment.”
—W. Edwards Deming, American consultant, statistician, and educator (1900–1993)
INCORPORATE
(1) absorb; add in; admit; assimilate; blend or combine; build; embody; encompass; include; integrate; thoroughly unite as one body; let in; receive; slot in; unite
Word Used in Sentence(s)
(1) “Balance in mentoring is demonstrated by addressing the personal aspect and professional needs of the mentee. Moreover, the mentor can also incorporate a “task-oriented” and a “relationship-oriented” approach in mentoring.”
—Exforsys Inc. 2010. About Different Coaching and Mentoring Styles. (December 26). http://www.exforsys.com/career-center/coaching-mentoring/coaching-and-mentoring-styles.html (accessed March 28, 2013).
(2) encourage; foster; fuel; intensify; redouble; strengthen
(3) escalate; expand; grow; mushroom; multiply; proliferate; rise; soar; spread; swell
Word Used in Sentence(s)
(1) “Difficulties increase the nearer we approach the goal.”
—Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, German playwright, poet, novelist, and dramatist (1749–1832)
(1) “The excessive increase of anything causes a reaction in the opposite direction.”
—Plato, ancient Greek philosopher (428 BC–348 BC)
INDICATE
(1) argue; attest; bespeak; betoken; designate; imply; point out or point to; state or express briefly; mark; point to; show; testify; witness
Word Used in Sentence(s)
(1) Current thinking among organizational behavior experts indicates there is correlation between job satisfaction and absenteeism in that as job satisfaction increases, absenteeism goes down.
—Schermerhorn, John, Richard Osborn, Mary UHL-Bien, and James Hunt. 2012. Organizational Behavior. 12th ed. New York: John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 5.
INDIVIDUALIZE
(1) adapt to the needs or special circumstances of an individual; particularize; distinguish
Word Used in Sentence(s)
(1) “There are, of course, many ways that educators can individualize student-teacher relationships in order to make them more responsive and effective. In the process, there is reason to believe that students become more eager to please and better able to learn. The exciting and challenging task for today’s university cultures is to find more varied and challenging solutions to teaching values like truthfulness.”
—Gross, Emma. 2011. Clashing Values: Contemporary Views About Cheating and Plagiarism Compared to Traditional Beliefs and Practices. Education 132 (2): 435–440.
Collocates to: can, curriculum, differentiate, help, instructions, students, skin, teachers, treatment
INDUCE
(1) bring about some action; cause; effect; encourage; generate; make; move by persuasion or influence; produce; tempt
Word Used in Sentence(s)
(1) “When an idea reaches critical mass there is no stopping the shift its presence will induce.”
—Marianne Williamson, American author and lecturer (1952)
(1) “The normal growth and maturation of a major industry is sufficient to induce large and rapid changes in employment, first up and then down; one does not need to invoke policy to explain them. An alternative explanation for the Roaring Nineties is this: the industries associated with the new inventions of our era grew rapidly in employment and production during the 1990s and matured nearly simultaneously around 2000, resulting in enormous layoffs. Neither the policymakers nor the politicians had much of anything to do with it.”
—Letters to the Editor.2003. Atlantic Monthly 291 (1) (January/February): 16.
Collocates to: behavior, changes, drugs, effects, greater, incentive, labor, sleep, stress, sufficient
INFLUENCE
(1) authority; clout; drag; effect; induce; leverage; manipulate; prestige; pull; talk into; sway; weight; win over
(2) affect; change; have a bearing on; have an effect on; inspire; shape
Word Used in Sentence(s)
(1) The HR consultant’s report will be influencing a large number of people.
(1) The CEO was influenced in a positive way by her work ethic.
(1) The most important person you have to influence is your direct supervisor.
INFORM
(1) acquaint; apprise; bring up to date; communicate knowledge or information; direct; enlighten; give character or essence; guide; inform with information; impart; let authorities know; notify; report; tattle; update
Word Used in Sentence(s)
(1) “Educate and inform the whole mass of the people... They are the only sure reliance for the preservation of our liberty.”
—Thomas Jefferson, third president of the United States (1762–1826)
(1) “If you would inform, a positive and dogmatic manner in advancing your sentiments may provoke contradiction and prevent a candid attention. If you wish information and improvement from the knowledge of others, and yet at the same time express yourself as firmly fixed in your present opinions, modest, sensible men, who do not love disputation, will probably leave you undisturbed in the possession of your error.”
—Frank Crane, American clergyman, speaker, and writer (1861–1921)
(2) teach a body of knowledge or perspective
(3) fill; permeate; pervade; suffuse
(4) brew; immerse; saturate; soak; souse; steep
Word Used in Sentence(s)
(1) “Words mean more than what is set down on paper. It takes the human voice to infuse them with shades of deeper meaning.”
—Maya Angelou, American poet (1928–)
“I always get back to the question, is it really necessary that men should consume so much of their bodily and mental energies in the machinery of civilized life? The world seems to me to do much of its toil for that which is not in any sense bread. Again, does not the latent feeling that much of their striving is to no purpose tend to infuse large quantities of sham into men’s work?’’
—William Allingham, Irish writer and poet (1824–1889)
(1) “Dreams and visions are infused into men for their advantage and instruction.”
—Unknown
(1) “The words ‘mentor’ and ‘mentoring’ are loaded. That is, they are infused with a mother lode of high hopes, blue skies, and all things constructive. The onus on a mentor is to pass on wisdom of some sort to a mentee. The fulfillment of this plethora of good stuff, however, assumes that three very important factors exist: A mentor with wisdom to spare, A mentor with knowledge and understanding of how to pass on wisdom to a mentee, A mentee receptive to a mentor.”
—Nigro, Nicholas. (n.d.). Mentor and Mentoring: Words and Reality. Netplaces. http://www.netplaces.com/coaching-mentoring/the-role-of-a-lifetime-a-script-for-mentoring/mentor-and-mentoring-words-and-reality.htm (accessed January 12, 2013).
INITIATE
(1) begin; create; commence; inaugurate; induct; install; instate; instigate; introduce; invest; kick off; open; set off; start
(2) coach; instruct; mentor; teach; train; tutor
Word Used in Sentence(s)
(1) Many firms plan to initiate new compensation plans when the economic recovery begins.
(1) The firm decided to initiate a series of seminars on networking.
INNOVATE
(1) begin with something new; create; derive; devise; coin; commence; instigate; invent; make; modernize; originate; remodel; renew; renovate; transform; update; revolutionize
Word Used in Sentence(s)
(1) In terms of résumés, cover letters, and other career approaches, now may not be the best time to get too creative and try to innovate.
Word Used in Sentence(s)
(1) “Mentors should inquire into the protégé’s family, leisure, and community connections and reinforce these important life involvements.”
—Johnson, W. Brad, and Charles R. Ridley. 2004. The Elements of Mentoring. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 37.
Word Used in Sentence(s)
(1) “You cannot inspect quality into the product; it is already there.”
—W. Edwards Deming, American consultant, statistician, and educator (1900–1993)
INSPIRE
(1) affect; arouse; encourage; excite; impel; incite; prompt; provoke; motivate; stimulate; stir
Word Used in Sentence(s)
(1) “According to the International Coach Federation (IFC), coaching is ‘partnering with clients in a thought-provoking and creative process that inspires them to maximize their personal and professional potential.’ Coaching is about creating a positive path forward: it focuses on the future (not the past, unless to learn from it).”
—Cook, Marshall J., and Laura Poole. 2008. Effective Coaching. 2nd ed. New York: McGraw Hill, 16.
(1) It is inspiring to see so much enthusiasm from the new employees.
(1) “To inspire others, you have to know what motivates them, and you have to be inspired yourself about the topic you are discussing. To be a leader and developer of others, you have to be inspiring.”
—Hayashi, Shawn Kent. 2011. Conversations for Star Performers. New York: McGraw Hill, 7.
(1) “Tim McNair, a general manager at Nazareth, Pa.-based guitar maker CF. Martin & Co., says he was inspired to make some changes after spotting his ‘gut’ on camera during a recent public speaking exercise while attending the Center for Creative learning workshop.”
—Kwoh, Leslie. 2013. Marketing. Wall Street Journal, January 16.
Word Used in Sentence(s)
(1) “Only the consciousness of a purpose that is mightier than any man and worthy of all men can fortify and inspirit and compose the souls of men.”
—Walter Lippmann, American journalist (1889–1974)
(1) “Recognize the difficulties and be honest about the challenges. Contemplating the pre- or post- tenure road may sometimes send you into the slough of despond. Natural enough. Make sure that eventually you take steps to jump or climb out. Writing helps, as does talking to others who can inspirit you, working to get what you want, and improving the lot of women coming up after you do. My own flirtation with post-denial despair has been long and tiring.”
—Beth Kalikoff, Iris, Tracking Tenure with Camera and Net, Iss. 30; pg. 40, December 1993.
INSTIGATE
(1) activate; bring about; create unrest; initiate; originate; provoke; set off; start; stir up
Word Used in Sentence(s)
(1) “Creation is the manifestation of a thought. It does not instigate but rather fulfills a desire.”
—Unknown
Word Used in Sentence(s)
(1) “Instill confidence in your protégé to help him overcome self-doubt.”
—Johnson, W. Brad, and Charles R. Ridley. 2004. The Elements of Mentoring. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 11.
INSTITUTE
(1) found; get established; inaugurate; introduce; originate; set some origination or activity in motion; set up; start
Word Used in Sentence(s)
(1) “There is nothing more difficult to carry out, nor more doubtful of success, nor more dangerous to handle, than to institute a new order of things.”
—Niccolo Machiavelli, Italian writer and statesman (1469–1527)
Word Used in Sentence(s)
(1) “A professional career counselor can help a job seeker explore and integrate gender, sexual orientation, socio economic status, ethnicity, spirituality, culture, disabilities, and/or social/familial influences into career choices.”
—National Career Development Association. 2009. Why Seek Career Counseling, Consumer Information (July 23). http://ncda.org/aws/NCDA/pt/sd/news_article/5586/_PARENT/layout_details_search/false (accessed December 14, 2012).
INTERPRET
(1) construe; explain; tell the meaning of present in understandable terms; representing the terms of individual belief or judgment
Word Used in Sentence(s)
(1) “You see, it’s never the environment; it’s never the events of our lives, but the meaning we attach to the events / how we interpret them / that shapes who we are today and who we’ll become tomorrow.”
—Anthony Robbins, American advisor to leaders
INTERACT
(1) act upon one another; two or more individuals or organizations communicating or dealing with each other generally for mutual benefit
Word Used in Sentence(s)
(1) The job search should be an opportunity for the candidate to interact with his or her strong and weak networks and traditional job placement professionals.
Word Used in Sentence(s)
(1) The interview is not an inquisition in fact; the applicant is really interviewing the organization.
(1) “When pressed about feedback from his boss he still struggled to identify even one specific weakness. I sent him off on an assignment: Interview at least five colleagues and subordinates.”
—Kaplan, Robert. 2008. Reaching Your Potential, Managing Yourself. Harvard Business Review (July/August): 47.
INTRODUCE
(1) acquaint; announce; inaugurate; initiate; insert; institute; inject; interpolate; insert; interpose; launch; lead; originate; present; precede; preface; usher in
Word Used in Sentence(s)
(1) The ideal process for a job search is for someone in the job seeker’s network to introduce the job seeker to the person doing the hiring.
(1) “Creativity is the ability to introduce order into the randomness of nature.”
—Eric Hoffer, American writer (1902–1983)
Word Used in Sentence(s)
(1) “The greatest stories are those that resonate our beginnings and intuit our endings, our mysterious origins and our numinous destinies, and dissolve them both into one.”
—Ben Okri, Nigerian author (1959–)
(1) “Chinese scholars called the three perfections—painting, poetry, and calligraphy. Shen would have learned from Ni Zan the power of this empty space, its ability to create at once a yearning for the tranquility it represents, a nostalgic memory of such moments of equipoise in one’s own life, and a brief experience within the painting of this quietude; and he deploys this knowledge here to effect that reluctance to move on in the scroll which I mentioned earlier, a hesitation before the work’s second stage that reminds us about the human ability to intuit perfection but not to dwell in it.”
—Sullivan, Mark. 2007. The Gift of Distance. Southwest Review 92 (3): 407–419.
(2) gift; spend resources
Word Used in Sentence(s)
(1) If you are going to create a résumé, it means you intend to invest in your future.
(1) A career coach should be invested in helping guide clients to achieve their career goals.
(1) When workers are asked about their opinions, thoughts, and ideas about solutions to workplace problems, they are likely to become more invested in the whole process.
(1) “Investing in apprenticeships and other training programs means a more productive and engaged workforce and better aligns workers’ motivations with the success of their employers.”
—de Rothschild, Lynn Forester, and Adam Posen. 2013. How Capitalism Can Repair Its Bruised Image, Opinion. Wall Street Journal, January 2.
(1) “Some firms are taking steps to expand the talent pool—for example, by investing in apprenticeships and other training programs.”
—Hancock, Bryan, and Dianna Ellsworth. 2013. Redesigning Knowledge Work. Harvard Business Review (January/February): 60.
(1) “If you invest in improving your employees’ view of your firm’s corporate character, those positive attitudes will rub off and boost customers’ opinions of the company. That will drive growth.”
—Davis, Gary, and Rosa Chun. 2007. To Thine Own Staff Be Agreeable, Organizational Character. Harvard Business Review (June): 30.
Word Used in Sentence(s)
(1) The job seeker should thoroughly investigate the company before a face-to-face interview.
(1) Job seekers should be aware that if offered a job, it is very likely the employer will investigate the applicant on social media either before an offer is made or during the probationary period.
(1) In 2011, employers investigated applicants on social media sites and either rejected or rescinded up to 30% of job offers based upon the undesirable material found.
INVIGORATE
(1) animate; energize; enliven; galvanize; increase; liven; refresh; revitalize; strengthen; stimulate
Word Used in Sentence(s)
(1) “Four years ago we said we would invigorate our economy by giving people greater freedom and incentives to take risks and letting them keep more of what they earned. We did what we promised, and a great industrial giant is reborn.”
—Ronald Reagan, 40th president of the United States (1911–2004)
(1) “In our drive to comprehend we want very much sense of the world around us and we are frustrated when things seem senseless, and we are invigorated, typically, by the challenge of working out answers.”
—Nohria, Nitin, Boris Groysberg, and Linda-Eling Lee. 2008. Employee Motivation A Powerful New Tool, Honing Your Competitive Edge. Harvard Business Review (July/August): 81.
Word Used in Sentence(s)
(1) “The way to create job benchmarks is by inviting the key stakeholders and the team of subject matter experts to collaborate on defining the position.”
—Hayashi, Shawn Kent. 2012. Conversations for Creating Star Performers. New York: McGraw Hill, 19.
(1) “When you invite people to think, you are inviting revolution.”
—Ivana Gabara, wife of Donald Trump
INVOLVE
(1) apply; catch up; complicate; contain; demand; embrangle; embroil; engage as a participant; entangle; implicate; imply; include; oblige to take part; enmesh; ensnarl; suck in
Word Used in Sentence(s)
(1) “Involvement in a support group should also serve critical corporate goals, such as expanding in a new geographic region or customer demographic.”
—Lublin, Joann. 2012. To Climb the Ladder, Try Joining a Group, Careers. Wall Street Journal, December 26.
(1) “Think about it. The very nature of mentoring implies that you’re involved in somewhat complicated and layered relationships. In other words, you’re mentoring individuals in need of guidance, knowledge, and skills of every imaginable hue. Mentees outside of business circles often require an all-encompassing change in the direction of their lives.”
—Nigro, Nicholas. (n.d.). Mentor and Mentoring: Words and Reality. Netplaces. http://www.netplaces.com/coaching-mentoring/the-role-of-a-lifetime-a-script-for-mentoring/mentor-and-mentoring-words-and-reality.htm (accessed January 12, 2013).
INVOKE
(1) appeal to; bring up; call up; call upon; compel observance; enforce; pray to; raise; recall; remember
(2) bring into play; bring up; cite; state; use; quote
(3) call up; conjure up; evoke; make reference to; refer to; remind of
Word Used in Sentence(s)
(1) “Leaders must invoke an alchemy of great vision.”
—Henry Kissinger, American political scientist (1923)
(1) “There is another side to chivalry. If it dispenses leniency, it may with equal justification invoke control.”
—Freda Adler, American author, educator, and theorist (1955–)
JAZZ
(1) enliven or embellish; to fill with jazz qualities; make exciting or elaborate; move, act, or behave in a lively, carefree way
(2) speed up
Word Used in Sentence(s)
(1) When you job hunt, it should be viewed as a full-time job.
(1) To job hunt is to work as a team.
JOB SEARCH
(1) systematic, strategic, targeted, and focused plan to identify a new position typically using both strong and weak networking ties
Word Used in Sentence(s)
(1) A professional career counselor should be able to assist the worker in developing effective skills to job search.
(1) There are basically two ways to job search: formally and informally. The candidate should not automatically exclude any possible approach, but the informal techniques have proven far more successful than the formal.
JOIN
(1) agree to conditions; become a member; associate; combine; enlist; enroll; enter; muster in; sign on
Word Used in Sentence(s)
(1) “To be sure, joining an employee-resource affinity group isn’t a ticket to the top everywhere. At a Wall Street Journal conference this May, former General Electric Co. executive Jack Welch derided corporate women’s groups as ‘victims units’ which top talent tends to avoid...Career experts caution against joining a group that doesn’t involve the big brass or provide access to them.”
—Lublin, Joann. 2012. To Climb the Ladder, Try Joining a Group, Careers. Wall Street Journal, December 26.
JUDGE
(1) adjudge; adjudicate; arbitrate; decide; decree; determine; form an opinion; govern; infer; referee; rule on something; umpire
Word Used in Sentence(s)
(1) “You can easily judge the character of a man by how he treats those who can do nothing for him.”
—James D. Miles
(1) “We are not afraid to entrust the American people with unpleasant facts, foreign ideas, alien philosophies, and competitive values. For a nation that is afraid to let its people judge the truth and falsehood in an open market is a nation that is afraid of its people.”
—John Fitzgerald Kennedy, 35th president of the United States (1917–1963)
JUMP-START
(1) bump start; to bring to life; get going; pop the clutch; push start; kick-start; rouse; spur; start up; stimulus; trigger
Word Used in Sentence(s)
(1) Sometimes an individual needs to jump-start his job search with something he has never tried before.
KEY UP
(1) get one excited; anxious; nervous; to anticipate; raise the courage or nerve of; to bring to a particular degree of intensity of feeling, excitement, energy, nervousness, or agitation
Word Used in Sentence(s)
(1) It is easy to get keyed up for a job interview, but don’t let emotions rule responses.
KICK THE TIRES
(1) early warning signs; first to investigate; look into something by checking the obvious things
Word Used in Sentence(s)
(1) Part of any career search should include a thorough background investigation of any prospective employer. Applicants need to kick the tires just the same as the employer.
Word Used in Sentence(s)
(1) “The fire you kindle for your enemy often burns yourself more than them.”
—Chinese proverb
(1) “To waken interest and kindle enthusiasm is the sure way to teach easily and successfully.”
—Unknown
LAUD
(1) acclaim; applaud; celebrate; exalt; extol; glorify; mention; praise; proclaim; speak well of
Word Used in Sentence(s)
(1) “Both Harper and Gaines were known for working long hours and when needed on the weekends. Employment evaluations over the years laud both Harper and Gaines as workers who fulfilled or exceeded expectations in their job duties and who valued the developmentally disabled as individuals. Although he was suspended briefly in 1985 for verbally and physically abusing a mentally disabled woman, employment records generally assert that Gaines had a calm, easy-going manner with even the most difficult clients, and excellent public relations skills.”
—McCarthy, Rebecca. 1998. Invisible Lives, News. Atlanta Journal Constitution, December 13.
Word Used with Rhythm and Imagery
• Vivid images—“And give to dust that is a little gilt More laud than gilt o’er-dusted” (William Shakespeare, English poet and playwright, 1516–1564).
LAUNCH
(1) begin; commence; dispatch; embark; get under way; hurl; introduce; initial steps; release something; let loose something; send off; shoot; start or kick off something
(2) introduce something; inaugurate; reveal; present; start marketing; unleash; unveil
Word Used in Sentence(s)
(1) Managing the successful launch of a new product can sometimes help launch a new career initiative.
(1) “You must live in the present, launch yourself on every wave, find your eternity in each moment.”
—Henry David Thoreau, American essayist, poet, and philosopher (1817–1862)
Word Used with Rhythm and Imagery
• Metaphor—“If you want to launch big ships, you have to go where the water is deep” (Unknown).
LEAD
(1) be first; captain; command; conduct; control; direct; head; direct the operations, activity, or performance; escort; go ahead; go in front; guide on a way especially by going in advance; manage; officer; pilot; show the way
Word Used in Sentence(s)
(1) “Leading is one of the four functions of management instilling enthusiasm by communicating with others, motivating them to work hard, and maintaining good interpersonal relations.”
—Schermerhorn, John, Richard Osborn, Mary UHL-Bien, and James Hunt. 2012. Organizational Behavior. 12th ed. New York: John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 4.
(1) Leading is one skill managers can demonstrate best by example.
(1) To lead is something managers should do by example.
LEARN
(1) acquire knowledge or skill in something through study or experience; become aware of something; get; be taught; become skilled at; gain knowledge of; master; memorize; pick up; study
(2) ascertain; discover; find out; gather; hear; realize; understand
Word Used in Sentence(s)
(1) Your value, as a manager, begins to lessen if you stop learning.
(1) The best way to learn how to deal with difficult management situations is through raw experience.
(1) “Who dares to teach must never cease to learn.”
—John Cotton Dana, American librarian and museum director (1856–1929)
(2) dispel; end; resend; reverse; revoke
Word Used in Sentence(s)
(1) “Surround yourself with only people who are going to lift you higher.”
—Oprah Winfrey, American television personality, actress, and producer (1954–)
LISTEN
(1) attend; hark; hear; hearken; list; lend an ear; make an effort to hear and understand something; pay attention; respond to advice, request, or command
Word Used in Sentence(s)
(1) Listening is a skill of which few people have mastered.
(1) “In order to consider yourself a coach in good standing, you must lead by example, delegate important responsibilities, listen to and freely communicate with your staff, and treat each and every one of your employees as individuals with distinct personalities and unique competencies.”
—Nigro, Nicholas. 2003. The Everyday Coaching and Mentoring Book. Avon, MA: Adams Media, 8.
(1) A good coach asks for employee input and then listens carefully to it.
(1) “Casual coaching style is more like an informal approach of coaching, as there are no goals set and there is no clear designation of roles and responsibilities. The learner makes the decisions. The communication style is more of listening. The coaching process lacks a good structure; the coach can go casual when dealing with the learner.”
—Exforsys Inc. 2010. About Different Coaching and Mentoring Styles. (December 26). http://www.exforsys.com/career-center/coaching-mentoring/coaching-and-mentoring-styles.html (accessed March 28, 2013).
Word Used in Sentence(s)
(1) Looking into one’s laurels is an idiom which alludes to laurels as the traditional material for making a victor’s crown.
Word Used in Sentence(s)
(1) “The parliamentary group Parliamentary group and parliamentary party are terms used to refer to the representation of a political party or electoral fusion of parties in a legislative assembly such as a parliament or in a city council. ..... Click the link for more information.of VMRO-DPMNE is offering a completely new lustration law, proposing that persons that acquired capital in publically owned companies, under the law on transformation of publically owned capital, should be lustrated too, Utrinski vesnik reports.”
—The Free Library. (2012). New Lustration Law Proposed. (March 23). http://www.thefreelibrary.com/New lustration law proposed.-a0285698579 (accessed January 12, 2013).
MAINTAIN
(1) cause or enable something to continue; keep something in good condition; keep up; provide with the necessities for life and existence; support; sustain
Word Used in Sentence(s)
(1) “I hope I shall always possess firmness and virtue enough to maintain what I consider the most enviable of all titles, the character of an ‘Honest Man.’”
—George Washington, American commander in chief of the colonial armies in the American Revolution (1775–1783) and subsequently first president of the United States (1732–1799)
(1) “Labor is work that leaves no trace behind it when it is finished, or if it does, as in the case of the tilled field, this product of human activity requires still more labor, incessant, tireless labor, to maintain its identity as a ‘work’ of man.”
—Mary McCarthy, American novelist and critic (1912–1989)
MAKE
(1) assemble; become; build; cause; compose; construct; create; develop; do; enact; erect; execute; fabricate; fashion; forge; form; frame; manufacture; mold; prepare; produce; put together; require; shape
Word Used in Sentence(s)
(1) “All mentoring relationships are about evolution. Mentors are charged with the responsibility of evolving their mentees in a whole host of ways. They are not expected to realize positive results in a nanosecond. That is, they aren’t expected to work miracles in one or two meetings. They are, however, counted on to move forward in these relationships, making progress all the time. Remember though that making progress doesn’t preclude the inevitable setback or two—it goes with the territory.”
—Nigro, Nicholas. (n.d.). Mentor and Mentoring: Words and Reality. Netplaces. http://www.netplaces.com/coaching-mentoring/the-role-of-a-lifetime-a-script-for-mentoring/mentor-and-mentoring-words-and-reality.htm (accessed January 12, 2013).
MANAGE
(1) administer; be in charge of; conduct or direct affairs; oversee; regulate; run; supervise
(2) do; fare; fend; get along; get by; make do; muddle through
(3) succeed in dealing with; control the behavior of; handle
(4) succeed despite difficulties
Word Used in Sentence(s)
(1) To manage requires allocating limited resources to accomplish specific objectives.
(1) Even the most talented employee cannot just step up and manage successfully; it takes, time, patience, training, and experience.
(1) To manage effectively, it is generally recognized one should be skilled in four functions—planning, organizing, leading, and controlling.
(1) There are three types of skills necessary to manage skillfully—technical, human, and conceptual.
MANEUVER
(1) carefully manipulate in order to achieve an end; specific tactic; finagle; jockey; manipulate; navigate; perform planned movements; pilot; plan skillfully; steer; use clever tricks
Word Used in Sentence(s)
(1) “Clearly older women and especially older women who have led an active life or elder women who successfully maneuver through their own family life have so much to teach us about sharing, patience, and wisdom.”
—Alice Walker, American author, poet, feminist, and activist (1944–)
(2) put in delineated order
Word Used in Sentence(s)
(1) “Women do not win formula one races, because they simply are not strong enough to resist the G-forces. In the boardroom, it is different. I believe women are better able to marshal their thoughts than men and because they are less egotistical they make fewer assumptions.”
—Henry Ford, American industrialist (1863–1947)
MARVEL
(1) be in awe, be amazed; be bowled over; to see an awesome sight or an amazing thing; be amazed or astonished; be filled with wonder; to experience a phenomenon, to wonder
Word Used in Sentence(s)
(1) Job seekers who can master the soft skills and in particularly the communications skills will have a distinct advantage.
Word Used in Sentence(s)
(1) Most employers are searching for candidates with specific sets of skills that match the skill set(s) necessary to perform a particular job. However, beyond these job-specific technical skills, certain soft skills are universally sought by employers.
(1) “Big businesses can do a better job of matching workers with available jobs. This is particularly necessary for younger workers, for whom time out of work does lasting damage.”
—de Rothschild, Lynn Forester, and Adam Posen. 2013. How Capitalism Can Repair Its Bruised Image, Opinion. Wall Street Journal, January 2.
MAXIMIZE
(1) make best use of; make as great or as large as possible; raise to the highest possible degree
Word Used in Sentence(s)
(1) “We must expect to fail...but fail in a learning posture, determined not to repeat the mistakes, and to maximize the benefits from what is learned in the process.”
—Ted W. Engstrom, American evangelical leader and author (1916–2006)
Word Used in Sentence(s)
(1) “The student’s secondary curriculum and transition plan should then be targeted toward reaching these goals. Ongoing data collection, both formal and informal, helps to measure progress toward meeting postsecondary goals, and it is precisely this data that provides the foundation upon which the SOP is developed.”
—Shaw, Stan. 2012. Beyond Compliance. Teaching Exceptional Children 44 (5) (May/June): 6–12.
Collocates to: ballot, designed, items, measure, passed, performance, progress, scale, success, tape
MEET
(1) adjoin; come together with at the same place and time; connect with someone person; see or be introduced for the first time; encounter; greet; rendezvous; touch or join
(2) fulfill or satisfy an agreement
MEDIATE
(1) arbitrate; act as a go-between; help settle difference of opinion; intercede; intervene; judge; reconcile; referee; umpire
Word Used in Sentence(s)
(1) Mediating disputes can prevent them from escalating into more serious matters.
Word Used in Sentence(s)
(1) “Researchers in the natural and social sciences often have been at odds over why humans behave as they do. Now, some biologists are beginning to meld their ideas with psychologists and sociologists. Philosophers, ethicists and other experts in the humanities also are beginning to pay closer attention to what the biologists have to say. Biologists, for example, have relied on Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution—the ‘survival of the fittest’—to help explain how individuals survive and reproduce at the expense of others.”
—Seabrook, Charles. 1999. Science Watch; Nature’s Way: Is It Our Way? Reader, Atlanta Journal Constitution, January 10.
Collocates to: allow, into, flavors, interests, metal, mind, parts, seamlessly, together, trying, voices
Word Used in Sentence(s)
(1) In Greek mythology, Mentor was the son of Heracles and Asopis. Mentor was a friend of Odysseus who placed Mentor and Odysseus’ foster-brother Eumaeus in charge of his son Telemachus, when Odysseus left for the Trojan War.
When Athena visited Telemachus she took the disguise of Mentor to hide herself from the suitors of Telemachus’ mother Penelope. As Mentor, Athena advised Telemachus to stand up against the suitors and travel abroad to find out what happened to his father. Odysseus finally returned to Ithaca after years of wandering.
Because of Mentor’s relationship with Telemachus, and the disguised Athena’s encouragement and practical plans for dealing with personal dilemmas, the name Mentor has been adopted in English as a term meaning someone who imparts wisdom to and shares knowledge with a less experienced colleague.
—Homer. Odyssey, Book II, Lines 255 and 268
(1) “The critical role and responsibility assumed by an experienced, caring, and wise mentoring participant who agrees to help, build a relationship with, and facilitate the professional growth of one or more protégés. Mentors are role models of effective practice and of a very visible desire to continue to grow professionally, every day, and throughout their career. In this way, mentors are models of the vulnerability required to share problems with and learn from others for the sake of continual improvement... Mentor may finally become the protégés when the person they are mentoring helps the mentor to learn something new, such as use of social media or another technology. In this case we describe the relationship as ‘reverse’ mentoring.”
—Sweeny, Barry. (n.d.). Mentoring Glossary. International Mentoring Association. http://mentoring-association.org/resources/mentoring-glossary/#Mentor (accessed December 27, 2012).
(1) “All mentoring is not created equal. We discovered. There is a special kind of relationship—called sponsorship—in which the mentor goes beyond giving feedback and advice and uses his or her influence with senior executives to advocate for the mentee.”
—Ibarra, Herminia, Nancy Carter, and Christine Silva. 2010. Why Men Still Get More Promotions Than Women. Harvard Business Review (September): 82.
Word Used in Sentence(s)
(1) “The bizarre world of cards [is] a world of pure power politics where rewards and punishments [are] meted out immediately.”
—Ely Culbertson, American entrepreneurial contract bridge personality (1891–1955)
Collocates to: harsh, discipline, out, punishment, justice, shall, system
MOBILIZE
(1) activate; assemble; call up; drum up support for; generate support for something; gather people and resources for something; marshal; muster; organize; rally
Word Used in Sentence(s)
(1) “It is a new world of management where managers aren’t the only leaders and where part of every manager’s success is based on how well he or she mobilizes leadership contributions from others.”
—Schermerhorn, John, Richard Osborn, Mary UHL-Bien, and James Hunt. 2012. Organizational Behavior. 12th ed. New York: John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 4.
(1) Mobilizing an entire workforce for a fund drive requires a great deal of skill in time management and organizational leadership.
MODEL
(1) archetype; design; facsimile; hold up as an example; use an example to demonstrate meaning or prototype purpose; mold; original; representation; standard
Word Used in Sentence(s)
(1) A mentor should model the same excellence expected from protégés.
—Johnson, W. Brad, and Charles R. Ridley. 2004. The Elements of Mentoring. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 9.
(1) Organizational behavior scholars often model major factors and forces underlying real-world phenomena such as absenteeism and job satisfaction.
(2) curb; control; moderate; modulate
Word Used in Sentence(s)
(1) “Flexibility in mentoring is the ability of the mentor to adjust and modify oneself to natural responses depending on the situation. A mentoring style that can hardly be changed or modified to suit the needs of the mentee is considered as ‘rigid’ and is not a productive mentoring approach.”
—Exforsys Inc. 2010. About Different Coaching and Mentoring Styles. (December 26). http://www.exforsys.com/career-center/coaching-mentoring/coaching-and-mentoring-styles.html (accessed March 28, 2013).
MOLD
(1) to cast; craft; create; construct; build; design; engineer; form; make; model; produce; sculpt; shape
Word Used in Sentence(s)
(1) The right mentor can mold a protégé into a formidable management candidate.
Word Used in Sentence(s)
(1) Everyone should monitor their career progress; stay focused on advancements, don’t neglect long-term thinking, and keep the résumé up to date.
(1) “An internship is any carefully monitored work or service experience in which an individual has intentional learning goals and reflects actively on what he or she is learning throughout the experience.”
—National Society for Experimental Education
MOTIVATE
(1) cause; egg on; encourage; incentivize; induce; inspire; provide with a motive; prompt; provoke; stimulate; trigger
(1) Firms that try to motivate their workers with a pay-for-performance scheme generally find the policy to be complex and a double-edged sword.
(1) The most recent research data says employees can be motivated if their individual needs or drives are addressed: the drive to acquire, the drive to bond, the drive to comprehend, and the drive to defend.
NAVIGATE
(1) plan or direct; find the way; follow the route; guide; map read; plot the course; plot a route; steer
Word Used in Sentence(s)
(1) A client preparing for a career change needs a professional career counselor who has navigated the course before.
NETWORK
(1) exchange ideas; interact with others to exchange information and develop contacts; make contacts; meet people; set up; to use system of contacts for mutual benefit
Word Used in Sentence(s)
(1) Network, Network, Network!
(1) “People already in the workforce who have learned to take advantage of the skills and benefits of networking will confirm that they get more opportunities than their peers who do not network.”
—Faulkner, Dr. Michael, and Andrea Nierenberg. 2010. Networking for College Students. Boston: Pearson Learning Solutions, 5.
(1) “Constant networking is critical, too. The idea, Ms. Mitchell says is prepare in case a big change comes.”
—Kelly, Catlin. 2013. Over 50, and Under No Illusions, Sunday Business. New York Times, January 13.
(1) “Clara Novack didn’t just change jobs, she changed countries...She is accustomed to adapting, and to using her networking skills. In the economic downturn, networking and word of mouth were how she developed her business. Volunteering and networking kept her in business quite nicely including overseas work in Egypt and Ukraine and later Canada and Kuwait.”
—Kelly, Catlin. 2013. Over 50, and Under No Illusions, Sunday Business. New York Times, January 13.
NURTURE
(1) care for; encourage something or someone to grow or develop; foster; help develop; look after; take care
Word Used in Sentence(s)
(1) “A mentor should nurture their protégé’s dreams and help them realize their special potentialities.”
—Johnson, W. Brad, and Charles R. Ridley. 2004. The Elements of Mentoring. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 26.
Word Used with Rhythm and Imagery
• Simile—“The role of a mentor in nurturing creativity is analogous to the actions of a midwife. A mentor offers a protective sanctuary in which creativity is first recognized and encouraged” (Johnson, W. Brad, and Charles R. Ridley. 2004. The Elements of Mentoring. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 26).
OBSERVE
(1) examine; make a remark; monitor; notice; perceive; say; scrutinize; study; survey; view; watch attentively
Word Used in Sentence(s)
(1) “A man’s faults all conform to his type of mind. Observe his faults and you may know his virtues.”
—Chinese proverb
(1) When you are working, you are being observed whether anyone says anything or not. By observing experts at work, you can learn as much as from textbooks.
OBTAIN
(1) achieve; acquire; arrive at; attain; come into possession of; find; gain; get; get hold of; take
Word Used in Sentence(s)
(1) “Do not overrate what you have received, nor envy others. He who envies others does not obtain peace of mind.”
—Buddha, Hindu Prince Gautama Siddharta, the founder of Buddhism (563 BC–483 BC)
Word Used in Sentence(s)
(1) “We are concerned that much of the emphasis in this legislation focuses on horses already out of the barn. We believe that legislation will be most useful when, along with an appropriately designed notification standard, it also creates incentives for business to adopt practices that protect data and obviate the need for notification.”
—Unknown
(2) express willingness to do something for someone
Word Used in Sentence(s)
(1) “Offer protégés a model of coping, not a model of mastery.”
—Johnson, W. Brad, and Charles R. Ridley. 2004. The Elements of Mentoring. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 33.
OPERATE
(1) be in effect; control the function of; to bring about a desired or appropriate effect; to have a certain influence
Word Used in Sentence(s)
(1) “The coach and mentor always—with no exception—operates within the parameters of the business environment.”
—Nigro, Nicholas. 2003. The Everyday Coaching and Mentoring Book. Avon, MA: Adams Media, 13.
Word Used in Sentence(s)
(1) “I’ve heard claims that we can wish our way to perfect, permanent wellness, but I haven’t seen any proof of that. Sickness and death are part of life. But you can optimize your life. You can make progress as you strive toward perfection.”
—Brian Carter, American author, speaker, marketer, and comedian
(2) arrange or organize surreptitiously so as to achieve a desired effect
Word Used in Sentence(s)
(1) He orchestrated the merger of the two companies.
(1) The career coaches orchestrated the job fair, which brought a great deal of talent together.
ORGANIZE
(1) arrange systematically; categorize; make arrangements, plans or preparations for; order; put in order; sort out; systematize
(2) control; coordinate; fix; manage; take charge
Word Used in Sentence(s)
(1) “Organizing is one of the four main functions of management—creating work structures and systems, and arranging resources to accomplish goals and objectives.”
—Schermerhorn, John, Richard Osborn, Mary UHL-Bien, and James Hunt. 2012. Organizational Behavior. 12th ed. New York: John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 4.
ORIGINATE
(1) bring into being; create or initiate; have a specified beginning; initiate; invent; make; start off
(2) begin; come from; derive; start; stem from
Collocates to: appeared, believed, billed, cells, did, form, seemed, sources, within
Word Used in Sentence(s)
(1) “Participate joyfully in the sorrows of the world. We cannot cure the world of sorrows, but we can choose to live in joy.”
—Joseph Campbell, American prolific author, editor, philosopher, and teacher (1904–1987)
(1) “The Center for Creative Learning staff collected hundreds of peer-performance reviews and health-screening results from CEOs and other senior-level managers who participated in a weeklong leadership workshop. A pair of university researchers, using data collected from 750 executives and previously collected and data from the participants detected a correlation that a leader’s weight may indeed influence perceptions of leaders among subordinates, peers and superiors.”
—Kwoh, Leslie. 2013. Marketing. Wall Street Journal, January 16.
Word Used with Rhythm and Imagery
• Repetition—“Do more than belong: participate. Do more than care: help. Do more than believe: practice. Do more than be fair: be kind. Do more than forgive: forget. Do more than dream: work” (William Arthur Ward, American dedicated scholar, author, editor, pastor, and teacher).
PARTNER
(1) assist; associate with others; connect; go in; join with others; link up; team up; unite
Word Used in Sentence(s)
(1) “According to the International Coach Federation (IFC), coaching is ‘partnering with clients in a thought-provoking and creative process that inspires them to maximize their personal and professional potential.’ Coaching is about creating a positive path forward: it focuses on the future (not the past, unless to learn from it).”
—Cook, Marshall J., and Laura Poole. 2008. Effective Coaching. 2nd ed. New York: McGraw Hill, 16.
PERFORM
(1) carry out, accomplish, or fulfill an action; meet the requirements, task, or function; work; function or do something to a specified standard
(2) present entertainment to an audience
Word Used in Sentence(s)
(1) Performing is the fourth stage of team development.
(1) “A mentor performs the role of prudent counselor, dispensing advice on career paths, and offers beneficial problem-solving hints on the more immediate matters of the work at hand. Mentors base their instruction on their real-life experiences. Essentially, the mentor points the mentee, a.k.a. protégé, in the right direction regarding opportunities within the company.”
—Nigro, Nicholas. (n.d.). Mentor and Mentoring: Words and Reality. Netplaces. http://www.netplaces.com/coaching-mentoring/the-role-of-a-lifetime-a-script-for-mentoring/mentor-and-mentoring-words-and-reality.htm (accessed January 12, 2013).
PERSEVERE
(1) be steadfast in purpose; continue something in spite of difficulty or opposition; persist; repeat something insistently or over and over again
Word Used in Sentence(s)
(1) “You may persevere in obscurity for ten years in your study, but the day you make a name for yourself, the whole world will acclaim ... you. “
—Unknown
(1) “The will to persevere is often the difference between failure and success.”
—David Sarnoff, American (1891–1971)
Word Used in Sentence(s)
(1) “You are capable of more than you know. Choose a goal that seems right for you and strive to be the best, however hard the path. Aim high. Behave honorably. Prepare to be alone at times, and to endure failure. Persist! The world needs all you can give.”
—Edward O. Wilson
PERSUADE
(1) cause someone to believe something; convince; induce someone to do something through reasoning or argument; reason; urge
Word Used in Sentence(s)
(1) By persuading his boss to take that step, Jeff demonstrated his skill in managing upwards.
(1) “One benefits related activity a Texas Instruments employee-resources group took on was to persuade senior management that introducing domestic partner benefits would offer a competitive advantage.”
—Lublin, Joann. 2012. To Climb the Ladder, Try Joining a Group, Careers. Wall Street Journal, December 26.
(1) “If I am trying to persuade others, I first have to understand their position, which means I have to listen to them. I have to appeal to their values, which means I have to show them respect. I have to find the best argument for my position, which means I have to think about my values in the context of their concerns.”
—Jenkins, John. 2013. Persuasion as the Cure for Incivility. Wall Street Journal, January 9.
Word Used in Sentence(s)
(1) “May the strength of God pilot us, may the wisdom of God instruct us, may the hand of God protect us, may the word of God direct us. Be always ours this day and for evermore.”
—Irish prayer from St. Patrick
Word Used in Sentence(s)
(1) “Honest pioneer work in the field of science has always been, and will continue to be, life’s pilot. On all sides, life is surrounded by hostility. This puts us under an obligation.”
—William Reich, Austrian psychoanalyst (1897–1957)
(2) arrangement of strategic ideas in diagrams, charts, sketches, graphs, tables, maps, and other documents
Word Used in Sentence(s)
(1) The ability to plan and execute the plan is a sought-after management skill.
(1) Having planned the sales meeting and organized all the activities demonstrates superb organization skills.
(1) “Planning will help you think in terms of laying down a foundation of the particular experiences you need to create a résumé to move you into senior management.”
—Wellington, Sheila. 2001. Be Your Own Mentor. New York: Random House, 33.
(1) “One of the four functions of management is planning—setting specific performance objectives, and identifying the actions needed to achieve them.”
—Schermerhorn, John, Richard Osborn, Mary UHL-Bien, and James Hunt. 2012. Organizational Behavior. 12th ed. New York: John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 4.
POSIT
(1) assume; conceive; conjecture; hypothesize; imagine; postulate; put forward; speculate; suggest; state or assume as fact; theorize
Word Used in Sentence(s)
(1) “It is the duty of the human understanding to understand that there are things which it cannot understand, and what those things are. Human understanding has vulgarly occupied itself with nothing but understanding, but if it would only take the trouble to understand itself at the same time it would simply have to posit the paradox.”
—Soren Kierkegaard, Danish philosopher and theologian (1813–1855)
Word Used in Sentence(s)
(1) One way to position yourself for the right job is to do research in advance about the day-to-day work involved, the trends of the industry or field, the benchmarks of the firm, and the conditions of the worksite.
POSTULATE
(1) assume; claim; guess; hypothesize; look for a reason or take for granted without proof; propose; put forward; suggest
Word Used in Sentence(s)
(1) “The line of least resistance in the progress of civilization is to make that theoretical postulate real by the continually increasing force of the world’s public opinion.”
—Elihu Root, American lawyer and statesman (1845–1937)
(1) “Mr. METZ: Yes, but, by the same token, if you really postulate lower inflation, which I think is quite reasonable, then the real returns from debt instruments are extraordinarily high—around 4 percent plus. Really, that is a normal minus inflation rate. So this, I think, presents a very attractive alternative to the individual investor.”
—CNN Money_line, August 23, 1991
Word Used in Sentence(s)
(1) “Coaches should practice immediate and assertive on-the-spot problem solving. Solve today’s problems today, not tomorrow, and not next week.”
—Nigro, Nicholas. 2003. The Everyday Coaching and Mentoring Book. Avon, MA: Adams Media, 59.
PREDICT
(1) achieve; acquire; arrive at; attain; come into possession of; find; gain; get; get hold of; take
Word Used in Sentence(s)
(1) “Trying to predict the future is like trying to drive down a country road at night with no lights while looking out the back window.”
—Peter F. Drucker, American educator and writer (1909–2010)
Word Used with Rhythm and Imagery
• Antithesis—“Those who have knowledge, don’t predict. Those who predict, don’t have knowledge” (Lao Tzu, Chinese taoist philosopher, 600 BC–531 BC).
PREPARE
(1) arrange; get ready to deal with something; make ready for use or consideration; organize; plan; practice; put in order
(2) coach; groom; make ready; train; warm up
(3) cook; get ready; make
Word Used in Sentence(s)
(1) Before an organization decides to bring in an external career coach, they should prepare the employees by explaining what the plan is and why the decision was made.
(2) formally introduce someone to someone else
(3) put (a show or exhibition) before the public
(4) appear formally before others
Word Used in Sentence(s)
(1) Presenting before an audience is a skill one should master.
(1) “The cooperative coaching style coaching style involves the participation of the individuals in coaching. The coach presents the coaching materials and activities amenable to the learner and injects a part of the problem solving. Decision-making is shared but under the guidance of the coach. The structure of coaching is meaning that the strategies and techniques will be designed according to the needs and level of grasp of the trainee. In this style, the learning process is shared between the coach and the trainee.”
—Exforsys Inc. 2010. About Different Coaching and Mentoring Styles. (December 26). http://www.exforsys.com/career-center/coaching-mentoring/coaching-and-mentoring-styles.html (accessed March 28, 2013).
PROBLEM SOLVE
(1) use cognitive processing to find a solution to a difficult question or situation; to use deep thought to solve a problem
(1) The ability to problem solve makes a candidate a valuable commodity.
(1) “There are few managerial skills more valued than levelheaded problem solving. Getting a handle on tough situations—without flying off the handle—is what separates the men from the boys—and women from the girls—on the managerial scales. By showcasing your ability to beat back obstacles in a professional manner, you reward the faith the company placed in you by giving you a mentor, or making you a mentor, in the first place.”
—Nigro, Nicholas. (n.d.). Mentor and Mentoring: Words and Reality. Netplaces. http://www.netplaces.com/coaching-mentoring/the-role-of-a-lifetime-a-script-for-mentoring/mentor-and-mentoring-words-and-reality.htm (accessed January 12, 2013).
PROCESS
(1) course of being done; deal with using a series of procedures; continuing development of series of operations
Word Used in Sentence(s)
(1) “A professional career counselor can help a job seeker gather, summarize, and process information about occupations as they relate to nature of work, working conditions, job market, world and US job trends, employment outlook, earnings and salary, educational/academic training, and related occupations.”
—National Career Development Association. 2009. Why Seek Career Counseling, Consumer Information (July 23). http://ncda.org/aws/NCDA/pt/sd/news_article/5586/_PARENT/layout_details_search/false (accessed December 14, 2012).
(1) The ability to process customer orders quickly and accurately has become a most urgent need for American businesses.
(2) bring forth; produce; yield
Word Used in Sentence(s)
(1) “One obvious difference between coaches in business and licensed therapists is that coaches have to produce results. Managers who don’t produce positive performance results will be out of job in short order.”
—Nigro, Nicholas. 2003. The Everyday Coaching and Mentoring Book. Avon, MA: Adams Media, 12.
(1) “My research also indicates that the process that produces great leaders is similar or perhaps even identical to those that produce awful ones, and this is true in domains ranging from politics to business to science. Unfiltered leaders can be domain experts—such expertise is rarely company specific. What they are not is evaluated by their new organizations, so, whatever their expertise, it is difficult to know what they will do in power and impossible to be sure that one is the right person for the job.”
—Kader, Abdul. 2012. Regional Health and Wellness Director (NC) Walmart, US, The Best Leaders Have Short Résumés, Interaction. Harvard Business Review (December): 18.
(2) extend outward toward something else
(3) cause a light shadow to fall on a surface
(4) attribute an emotion to another person
Word Used in Sentence(s)
(1) A successful interview is one in which you can project yourself in a role making or saving money for your new company and making your boss look good.
(2) help bring about the growth or popularity of something or someone
Word Used in Sentence(s)
(1) “Cisco promoted Guillermo Diaz to a vice presidency in 2007, an advancement he won three years after he successfully made Conexio’n, Cisco’s Hispanic network, more relevant to business and less of a social club with a happy hour.”
—Lublin, Joann. 2012. To Climb the Ladder, Try Joining a Group, Careers. Wall Street Journal, December 26.
(1) “Many business leaders promote mentoring relationships by getting their employees involved with at-risk young people. These acts of social responsibility on their parts enhance their images and help disadvantaged youngsters in need of support and tutelage in becoming the business leaders of tomorrow.”
—Nigro, Nicholas. (n.d.). Mentor and Mentoring: Words and Reality. Netplaces. http://www.netplaces.com/coaching-mentoring/the-role-of-a-lifetime-a-script-for-mentoring/mentor-and-mentoring-words-and-reality.htm (accessed January 12, 2013).
PROVE
(1) demonstrate truth by evidence or argument; demonstrate to be fact; demonstrate one’s ability or courage; establish the genuineness and validity of
(2) test by experiment; try out
Word Used in Sentence(s)
(1) “While the best-prepared or fortunate few may get back into the workforce at some semblance of their former employment, for many—middle-aged men in particular—the reduction in income and job status may prove to be permanent. More importantly, the involuntary job loss affects not just financial viability, but cuts to the core of identity and meaning in life.”
—Gallison, Dave. Recovering Self-Identity Amidst Long-Term Unemployment, National Career Development Association. http://associationdatabase.com/aws/NCDA/pt/sp/career_convergence (accessed December 29, 2012).
(2) describe by giving the characteristics or qualities of
(3) give a specific right to
(4) make fit for some field, office, job, occupation, or career
Word Used in Sentence(s)
(1) “No matter how qualified or deserving we are, we will never reach a better life until we can imagine it for ourselves and allow ourselves to have it.”
—Richard Bach, American writer and author (1936)
(1) You may qualify for a position but someone with a better network might get the inside track: This does not justify “it’s who you know that counts” because the other candidate has to have the qualifications, but their network merely positions them more favorably.
(2) numerical expression or explanation
(3) determine or express or explain the quantity of, numerical measure of, or extent of
Word Used in Sentence(s)
(1) The ability to quantify and measure your contributions to your organization is a career elevator.
Collocates to: able, blood, can, easy, hard, difficult, measure, numbers, value, whether
RAISE
(1) hold or lift up; lift or move to higher position; increase the amount, level, or strength of something
(2) establish contact with someone by communications device
Word Used in Sentence(s)
(1) The goal of in-house training should be to raise the skill level and change the behavior of those being trained.
(1) Proper job design or work arrangement should help reduce job dissatisfaction and raise productivity.
(1) “A lot is expected of coaches. They are expected to raise employees’ self-awareness, self-confidence, and self-development.”
—Nigro, Nicholas. 2003. The Everything Coaching and Mentoring Book. Avon, MA: Adams Media Corp., 58.
(2) summons or bring people together for a common purpose
(3) bring back to action; revive
Word Used in Sentence(s)
(1) “Leadership is the capacity and will to rally men and women to a common purpose and the character which inspires confidence.”
—Unknown
(2) think or remember something from long past in an attempt to connect to the current issue or point
Word Used in Sentence(s)
(1) “True success is when you reach back and bring somebody along with you.”
—Joel Osteen, American author and televangelist (1963–)
Word Used in Sentence(s)
(1) “The Benchmarking process realigns the position with the most up-to-date-strategic business initiatives.”
—Hayashi, Shawn Kent. 2012. Conversations for Creating Star Performers. New York: McGraw Hill, 19.
REALIZE
(1) achieve; accomplish; appreciate; become fully aware of; comprehend; become conscious; recognize; take in
(2) attain; bring to fruition; carry out; complete; make happen; make real; reach
(3) convert into cash on some commercial or business transaction
Word Used in Sentence(s)
(1) “All mentoring relationships are about evolution. Mentors are charged with the responsibility of evolving their mentees in a whole host of ways. They are not expected to realize positive results in a nanosecond. That is, they aren’t expected to work miracles in one or two meetings. They are, however, counted on to move forward in these relationships, making progress all the time. Remember though that making progress doesn’t preclude the inevitable setback or two—it goes with the territory.”
—Nigro, Nicholas. (n.d.). Mentor and Mentoring: Words and Reality. Netplaces. http://www.netplaces.com/coaching-mentoring/the-role-of-a-lifetime-a-script-for-mentoring/mentor-and-mentoring-words-and-reality.htm (accessed January 12, 2013).
(2) think coherently and logically
(3) draw inference or conclusions from facts or assumptions
(4) argue or talk in a logical way
Word Used in Sentence(s)
(1) “The wise are instructed by reason, average minds by experience, the stupid by necessity and the brute by instinct.”
—Marcus Tullius Cicero, Roman philosopher, statesman, lawyer, orator, political theorist (106 BC–43 BC)
(1) “Only one who devotes himself to a cause with his whole strength and soul can be a true master. For this reason mastery demands all of a person.”
—Albert Einstein, American theoretical physicist (1879–1955)
Word Used in Sentence(s)
(1) “With clients who come to me, I proceed on parallel tracks—develop and execute a job search campaign that is more focused and effective, and help clients adapt to major changes in their lives and rebuild their sense of meaning and identity. Job seeking for long-term displaced workers in this period of sustained record unemployment is, in itself, a subject for another article, let alone several counseling sessions. However, if we can progressively address the emotional, physical and even spiritual effects of job loss, then we can begin to reverse the spiral of self-doubt that stifles effective job-seeking behaviors.”
—Gallison, Dave. Recovering Self-Identity Amidst Long-Term Unemployment, National Career Development Association. http://associationdatabase.com/aws/NCDA/pt/sp/career_convergence (accessed December 29, 2012).
(2) acknowledge the existence, validity, or legality of
(3) show official appreciation of
Word Used in Sentence(s)
(1), (2) “Recognize that appropriate confrontation builds trust.”
—Johnson, W. Brad, and Charles R. Ridley. 2004. The Elements of Mentoring. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 27.
(1), (2) “A coach is required to be empathetic. That is, you’ve got to grasp fundamental human psychology and recognize the importance of elevating both body and soul to get the job done, and done right. And showing empathy for a fellow human being is not something that can be readily gleaned by reading a book or attending a seminar.”
—Nigro, Nicholas. 2003. The Everything Coaching and Mentoring Book. Avon, MA: Adams Media Corp., 58.
(1), (2) “Recognizing a job well done today increases the chances of a job well done tomorrow.”
—Nigro, Nicholas. 2003. The Everyday Coaching and Mentoring Book. Avon, MA: Adams Media, 60.
(1), (2) “Rather than assuming that there is one ‘best’ or universal answer to questions about such things as job design, resistance to change, the best compensation plans, how to design teams, what are the causes of unethical behavior, organizational behavior recognizes that management practices must be tailored to fit the exact nature of each situation...”
—Schermerhorn, John, Richard Osborn, Mary UHL-Bien, and James Hunt. 2012. Organizational Behavior. 12th ed. New York: John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 4.
RECOMMEND
(1) advise as a course of action; advocate; counsel; make appealing or desirable; oppose; put forward with approval as being suitable; propose; suggest; urge
(2) commend; endorse; mention; put in a good word; vouch for
Word Used in Sentence(s)
(1) “Mr. Wilson recommended that Ms. Ackerley accept her current position in order to broaden her experience.”
—Lublin, Joann. 2012. To Climb the Ladder, Try Joining a Group, Careers. Wall Street Journal, December 26.
(2) increase personnel by soliciting invitations to join
Word Used in Sentence(s)
(1) “In the great mass of our people there are plenty individuals of intelligence from among whom leadership can be recruited.”
—Herbert Hoover, 31st president of the United States (1874–1964)
(2) move assets and resources to new locations for new assignments
Word Used in Sentence(s)
(1) The head of human resources redeployed the staff into work teams.
REFER
(1) allude to; attribute to; call or direct attention to something; concern; direct to a source for help or information; make mention or reference to; pertain; resort to
Word Used in Sentence(s)
(1) If a professional career counselor does not have the appropriate training, skills, or resources for the type of career concern presented, an appropriate referral must be made. It is the ethical responsibility of a career counselor, if necessary, to refer a client on to a more qualified counselor with the necessary skills and resources for giving the kind of help that is needed.
(2) bend or throw back light
(3) express or show
(4) recollect or realize as an afterthought
Word Used in Sentence(s)
(1) There is great value in being able to reflect upon where the job searcher is currently and the nature of his or her development path.
(1) “The current weak labor market for MBAs is partly reflected in starting pay. While available figures vary by schools and employers, recruiters’ expected medium salary for newly hired MBAs, was essentially flat between 2008 and 2011, not adjusted for inflation, according to a survey conducted by the Graduate Management Admissions Council.”
—Simon, Ruth. 2013. For Newly Minted MBAs, a Smaller Paycheck Awaits. Wall Street Journal, January 7.
(2) hold in affection; respect
(3) reference; relation
Word Used in Sentence(s)
(1) Career coaching and mentoring are regarded as highly effective techniques in employee development, for both management and staff level positions.
Word Used in Sentence(s)
(1) “Mentors should reinforce creativity while tempering over-expansiveness with reality and pragmatics.”
—Johnson, W. Brad, and Charles R. Ridley. 2004. The Elements of Mentoring. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 27.
(1) “Seeking involvement with a group—be it church, community-related, interest or sport, etc.—reduces isolation and can add structure and reinforce one’s sense of purpose.”
—Gallison, Dave. Recovering Self-Identity Amidst Long-Term Unemployment, National Career Development Association. http://associationdatabase.com/aws/NCDA/pt/sp/career_convergence (accessed December 29, 2012).
REINVENT
(1) change radically the appearance, form, or presentation of something or somebody; copy; invent something again, or bring something back into existence, use, or popularity after a period of neglect or obscurity; reestablish; rebuild; redesign; redevise; reform; remake; reproduce
Word Used in Sentence(s)
(1) “Ms. Mitchell, who has reinvented her own career a few times, says everyone should think about career options, alternative job paths and career goals, just in case the current job disappears.”
—Kelly, Catlin. 2013. Over 50, and Under No Illusions, Sunday Business. New York Times, January 13.
(2) dispatch; convey and transmit; send
Word Used in Sentence(s)
(1) “Life as many former job holders knew it, and the world of work, might never be the same again. Indeed, counselors may relay the new conventional wisdom that ‘all future jobs are temporary’ and can end at any time.”
—Gallison, Dave. Recovering Self-Identity Amidst Long-Term Unemployment, National Career Development Association. http://associationdatabase.com/aws/NCDA/pt/sp/career_convergence (accessed December 29, 2012).
(2) jog one’s memory; prompt; recap; repeat; tell again
Word Used in Sentence(s)
(1) Workers need to be reminded from time to time that they are more than their job descriptions.
Word Used in Sentence(s)
(1) “Words represent your intellect. The sound, gesture and movement represent your feelings.”
—Patricia Fripp, American professional keynote speaker, executive speech coach, public speaking expert, and sales presentation trainer
REQUIRE
(1) ask or insist upon by authority; be necessary or appropriate; consider obligatory; demand; expect; have need of; make someone do something; require as useful or proper; specify as compulsory
Word Used in Sentence(s)
(1) “While marathon training and predawn workouts aren’t explicitly part of a senior manager’s job description, leadership experts and executive recruiters say that staying trim is now virtually required for anyone on track for the corner office.”
—Kwoh, Leslie. 2013. Marketing. Wall Street Journal, January 16.
(2) analyze; break into separate parts
(3) cause to decide
Word Used in Sentence(s)
(1) “The difficulties you meet will resolve themselves as you advance. Proceed, and light will dawn, and shine with increasing clearness on your path.”
—Jim Rohn, American speaker and author
(2) consider or treat with deference or great respect
Word Used in Sentence(s)
(1) “If you want to be respected by others, the great thing is to respect yourself. Only that, only by self-respect, will you compel other to respect you.”
—Fyodor Dostoyevsky, Russian writer (1821–1881)
Collocates to: admire, due, dignity, enormous, lack, mutual, rights, treat
RESPOND
(1) act in response; answer or reply as a reaction to something; counter; react; retort; take action
(2) have a positive or favorable reaction
—Lao Tzu, Chinese taoist philosopher (600 BC–531 BC)
(1) “Every human has four endowments—self-awareness, conscience, independent will and creative imagination. These give us the ultimate human freedom... The power to choose, to respond, to change.”
—Steven Covey, American educator, author, businessman, and keynote speaker (1932–2012)
(2) receive an award
Word Used in Sentence(s)
(1) “Reward progress and positive results on an individual basis. Recognizing a job well done today increases the chances of a job well done tomorrow.”
—Nigro, Nicholas. 2003. The Everyday Coaching and Mentoring Book. Avon, MA: Adams Media, 60.
(2) to plan events and activities for certain times
Word Used in Sentence(s)
(1) “The key is not to prioritize what’s on your schedule, but to schedule your priorities.”
—Steven Covey, American educator, author, businessman, and keynote speaker (1932–2012)
(2) shelter or protect from something
(3) show a broadcast
Word Used in Sentence(s)
(1) “There are, in fact, coaching and mentoring practitioners who give short shrift to the importance of screening prospective employees in the interview process. It’s as if employees arrive on the job by some sleight of hand.”
—http://www.netplaces.com/coaching-mentoring/the-role-of-a-lifetime-a-script-for-mentoring/mentor-and-mentoring-words-and-reality.htm (accessed January 12, 2013).
SEE THROUGH
(1) understand the real meaning or reason of something; realize the falseness of something
Word Used in Sentence(s)
(1) We saw through their thinly veiled threat and called in our own backup team to ensure the work would be done on time.
(1) If you’re experienced enough, you can see through a pressure interview and identify the various roles being played by the participants.
Word Used in Sentence(s)
(1) “Always seek out the seed of triumph in every adversity.”
—Og Mandino, American essayist and psychologist (1923–1996)
(2) choose one in preference over another; pick out one based on some quality of excellence
(3) limit to certain groups based on some standard
Word Used in Sentence(s)
(1) “America is becoming so educated that ignorance will be a novelty. It will belong to the select few.
—Will Rogers, American cowboy, vaudeville performer, humorist, social commentator (1879–1935)
(1) “Just as I shall select my ship when I am about to go on a voyage, or my house when I propose to take a residence, so I shall choose my death when I am about to depart from life.
—Seneca, Roman stoic philosopher, statesman, and dramatist (4 BC–AD 65)
Word Used in Sentence(s)
(1) “Leadership is an opportunity to serve. It is not a trumpet call to self-importance.”
—J. Donald Walters, Romanian author, lecturer, and composer
(1) “True heroism is remarkably sober, very un-dramatic. It is not the urge to surpass all others at whatever cost, but the urge to serve others at whatever cost.”
—Arthur Ashe, American social activist and tennis player (1943–1993)
SHARE
(1) communicate something; give one’s portion to another; use jointly or in common; have in common
Word Used in Sentence(s)
(1) “When ideas are shared, the result is always greater than the sum of the parts.”
—Rich Willis, American writer
(1) “The worst part of holding the memories is not the pain. It’s the loneliness of it. Memories need to be shared.”
—Lois Lowry, American writer (1937–)
SHIFT
(1) exchange; abandon for another; set aside for something else; change directions or plans; move from one setting to another; move abruptly
Word Used in Sentence(s)
(1) “Twenty years ago, the book, The Managerial Woman, a seminal work by Margaret Hening and Ann Jardim on women in the workplace, concluded that women need to shift their focus from how well they do their job to what job they have; Is it one with profit-and-loss responsibility?”
—Wellington, Sheila. 2001. Be Your Own Mentor. New York: Random House, 24.
Word Used in Sentence(s)
(1) “Find the good. It’s all around you. Find it, showcase it and you’ll start believing in it.”
—Jesse Owens, American athlete (1913–1980)
(1) “There are few managerial skills more valued than levelheaded problem solving. Getting a handle on tough situations—without flying off the handle—is what separates the men from the boys—and women from the girls—on the managerial scales. By showcasing your ability to beat back obstacles in a professional manner, you reward the faith the company placed in you by giving you a mentor, or making you a mentor, in the first place.”
—Nigro, Nicholas. (n.d.). Mentor and Mentoring: Words and Reality. Netplaces. http://www.netplaces.com/coaching-mentoring/the-role-of-a-lifetime-a-script-for-mentoring/mentor-and-mentoring-words-and-reality.htm (accessed January 12, 2013).
Word Used in Sentence(s)
(1) “‘Seize the Day’ is a song by Avenged Sevenfold, the song is released as the fourth single from their third album City of Evil. It’s about taking the people you love and holding them close. You make some mistakes in life and that can all be taken away from you in two minutes, so you have to think twice about your actions. It’s about seizing the day and keeping those you love close and not messing up.”
—http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seize_the_Day_(song), (accessed January 20, 2013).
(2) crystallize
(3) make united
Word Used in Sentence(s)
(1) “Truth must be the foundation stone, the cement to solidify the entire social edifice.”
—Pope John Paul II, Polish ecclesiastic, pope (1920–2005)
(2) provide or find a suitable answer to problem
Word Used in Sentence(s)
(1) “We can’t solve problems by using the same kind of thinking we used when we created them.”
—Albert Einstein, American physicist (1879–1955)
Word Used in Sentence(s)
(1) One of the responsibilities of a mentor is to help sponsor the protégé for a new position.
STAND OUT
(1) be clear; be distinctive or conspicuous; be noticeable; be obvious; be prominent; refuse to agree, consent, or comply; show up; stick out
Word Used in Sentence(s)
(1) “Education lays the foundation for your career, helping you to develop problem-solving skills and/or technical expertise. But a specialty degree in your particular field not only will increase your knowledge, it will also make you stand out from the pack.”
—Wellington, Sheila. 2001. Be Your Own Mentor. New York: Random House, 55.
(1) Most résumés simply do not stand out from the crowd.
STREAMLINE
(1) make more efficient by employing faster or simpler working method to improve the efficiency or appearance of; modernize
Word Used in Sentence(s)
(1) The very tool of productivity that makes customers happier—streamlined production—is also the tool that eliminates jobs.
Word Used in Sentence(s)
(1) Of all the services career counselors can provide, the single most helpful is to strengthen the job seeker’s résumé.
STEREOTYPE
(1) banal; categorize as the same; conventional; formulaic; hackneyed; see as a cliché; make an oversimplified standardized image; orthodox; see as similar; trite
Word Used in Sentence(s)
(1) The biggest barriers to women’s advancement in the workplace include being stereotyped by their male managers, and being excluded from formal networks. It’s the factors that are indiscernible to the CEOs—but glaringly obvious to women—that keep them from being assigned to key jobs and gaining the experience they need to advance.”
—Wellington, Sheila. 2001. Be Your Own Mentor. New York: Random House, 13.
(1) “Professor Barry Posner of Santa Clara University’s Leavey School of Business says he can’t name a single overweight Fortune 500 CEO. ‘We have stereotypes about fat’ he adds, ‘so when we see a senior executive who’s overweight, our initial reaction isn’t positive.’”
—Kwoh, Leslie. 2013. Marketing. Wall Street Journal, January 16.
Word Used in Sentence(s)
(1) “Outstanding mentors study their protégés—learning about each one of them from the inside out.”
—Johnson, W. Brad, and Charles R. Ridley. 2004. The Elements of Mentoring. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 1.
Word Used in Sentence(s)
(1) “A professional career counselor can help a job seeker gather, summarize, and process information about occupations as they relate to nature of work, working conditions, job market, world and US job trends, employment outlook, earnings and salary, educational/academic training, and related occupations.”
—National Career Development Association. 2009. Why Seek Career Counseling, Consumer Information (July 23). http://ncda.org/aws/NCDA/pt/sd/news_article/5586/_PARENT/layout_details_search/false (accessed December 14, 2012).
SUPERVISE
(1) administer; control; direct; handle; observe; organize; oversee; manage; run; take charge of; watch
Word Used in Sentence(s)
(1) “To supervise people, you must either surpass them in their accomplishments or despise them.”
—Benjamin Disraeli, British prime minister and novelist (1804–1881)
(1) “Maturity is: The ability to stick with a job until it’s finished; The ability to do a job without being supervised; The ability to carry money without spending it; and The ability to bear an injustice without wanting to get even.”
—Abigail Van Buren, American Pauline Phillips is an American advice columnist and radio show host who began the “Dear Abby” column in 1956 (1918–2013)
(2) carry or bear the weight for; to keep from falling, slipping, or dropping
(3) give approval; uphold
Word Used in Sentence(s)
(1) “Support and challenge clients to examine life-work roles, including the balance of work, leisure, family, and community in their careers.”
—National Career Development Association Career Counseling Competencies (Revised Version, 1997). Minimum Competencies, Individual and Group Counseling Skills, http://ncda.org/aws/NCDA/pt/sd/news_article/37798/_self/layout_ccmsearch/true (accessed December 14, 2012).
(1) A manager’s job is to directly support the work efforts of others by providing them with the resources, training, and backing they need.
SYSTEMATIZE
(1) arrange; categorize; classify; combine; draft; organize; outline; set out; schematize; sort out; structure
Word Used in Sentence(s)
(1) “I believe that the moment is near when by a procedure of active paranoiac thought, it will be possible to systematize confusion and contribute to the total discrediting of the world of reality.”
—Salvador Dalí, Spanish painter (1904–1989)
Word Used in Sentence(s)
(1) “Rather than assuming that there is one ‘best’ or universal answer to questions about such things as job design, resistance to change, the best compensation plans, how to design teams, what are the causes of unethical behavior, organizational behavior recognizes that management practices must be tailored to fit the exact nature of each situation...”
—Schermerhorn, John, Richard Osborn, Mary UHL-Bien, and James Hunt. 2012. Organizational Behavior. 12th ed. New York: John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 4.
(1) Once applicants understand the skills and characteristics that most employer seek, they can be advised to tailor their job-search communications—résumés, cover letters, and interview language—to showcase how well their backgrounds align with common employer requirements.
(2) make an inventory
Word Used in Sentence(s)
(1) “In families children tend to take on stock roles, as if there were hats hung up in some secret place, visible only to the children. Each succeeding child selects a hat and takes on that role: the good child, the black sheep, the clown, and so forth.”
—Ellen Galinsky, American author and researcher
(2) establish as a target or goal
Word Used in Sentence(s)
(1) If you target the right job prospects, each interview will be productive.
TEACH
(1) coach; give lessons; instruct; mentor; provide knowledge or insight; show or help a person to learn
Word Used in Sentence(s)
(1) “Ideally, a mentor is a teacher who can teach a mentee a thing or two. But this wisdom and knowledge transfer occurs only if certain mentoring guidelines are mastered and intelligently applied. Just as teaching in a classroom setting is not a casual or haphazard undertaking, neither is mentoring.
—http://www.netplaces.com/coaching-mentoring/the-role-of-a-lifetime-a-script-for-mentoring/mentor-and-mentoring-words-and-reality.htm (accessed January 10, 2013).
(1) “Traditional management teaches that leaders ought to be cool, aloof, and analytical; they ought to separate emotion from work. Yet when real life leaders discuss what they’re most proud of in their own careers, they describe feelings of inspiration, passion, elation, intensity, challenge, caring, and kindness—and yes, even love.”
—Kouzes, James, and Barry Posner. 1995. The Leadership Challenge. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass Publishers, 15.
Word Used in Sentence(s)
(1) “Although it is tempting to view the process of team building as something outside consultants or paid experts are hired to do, the fact is that it can and should be part of any team leader and manager’s skill set.”
—Schermerhorn, John, Richard Osborn, Mary UHL-Bien, and James Hunt. 2012. Organizational Behavior. 12th ed. New York: John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 172.
(1) Any way you can help a client or protégé show that he or she helped team build on his or her résumé, it is a significant achievement.
TELECOMMUTE
(1) use a computer terminal, microcomputer, fax, etc. to perform work in one’s home that traditionally has been done in the office; work from an offsite location using the telephone, computer, and Internet
Word Used in Sentence(s)
(1) “Many U.S. employers encourage telecommuting (a word that entered the language in the mid-1970s, according to the Oxford English Dictionary). About 20% of employees at Cigna Corp, another Harford-area insurer, work from home. The Census Bureau’s Survey of Income and Program Participation finds about 9.4 million Americans about 6.6% of workers, worked exclusively from home on their primary job in 2010, up from 4.8% in 1997.”
—Wessel, David. 2012. U.S. News, Capital. Wall Street Journal, December 20.
(2) fit or adapt; to mix in the proper proportions
(3) bring to the proper consistency, texture, or hardness
Word Used in Sentence(s)
(1) “Mentors should reinforce creativity while tempering over-expansiveness with reality and pragmatics.”
—Johnson, W. Brad, and Charles R. Ridley. 2004. The Elements of Mentoring. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 27.
(1) “It is important for mentors to temper confrontation with realistic affirmation—especially early on.”
—Johnson, W. Brad, and Charles R. Ridley. 2004. The Elements of Mentoring. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 29.
(2) respect and recognize others beliefs without sharing them
(3) have tolerance for
Word Used in Sentence(s)
(1), (2) A manager can tolerate disagreement, opposing ideas, some resistance, but a manager should never tolerate insubordination.
Word Used in Sentence(s)
(1) Train the trainer is an approach many companies have used to expand training resources.
(1) “Companies that want to make better use of the data they gather should focus on two things: training workers to increase their data literacy and efficiently incorporate information into decision making, and giving those workers the right tools.”
—Shah, Shvetank, Andrew Horne, and Jamie Capella. 2012. Good Data Won’t Guarantee Good Decisions, Idea Watch. Harvard Business Review (April): 24.
(2) change the personality or character of one
(3) change the condition, nature, or function of
Word Used in Sentence(s)
(1) “Numerous big businesses have transformed their self-help networks into business partners for developing products, landing customers, and cracking new markets.”
—Lublin, Joann. 2012. To Climb the Ladder, Try Joining a Group, Careers. Wall Street Journal, December 26.
(1) “Don’t spend time beating on a wall, hoping to transform it into a door.”
—Coco Chanel, French fashion designer (1883–1971)
(1) “Man, alone, has the power to transform his thoughts into physical reality; man, alone, can dream and make his dreams come true.”
—Napoleon Hill, American author (1883–1970)
TRANSITION
(1) make or undergo a transition; movement from one position, thought, or idea to another
Word Used in Sentence(s)
(1) She transitioned from sales representative to sales manager in a short time.
(1) One of the most important things a job applicant should communicate to the interviewer is his or her short learning curve and ability to quickly transition into a productive member of the staff.
(1) The new structured classroom routine helped those students transitioning from the charter schools.
(1) “Nothing is secure but life, transition, the energizing spirit.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson, American poet, lecturer, and essayist (1803–1882)
Word Used in Sentence(s)
(1) A worker’s skill is an ability to translate knowledge, information, or experience into action that results in a desired performance that can be monitored, measured, and benchmarked.
(1) A very critical support service our retuning military veterans need is professionals to help them to translate their superior military training, experience, and background into civilian workplace language.
(1) “Recent research data show that among siblings, a one point increase in life satisfaction at age 22, compared with the mean of the family, translated into a nearly $4,000 difference in earnings at age 29, compared with the family mean. The analysis suggests happiness isn’t just linked to higher income—it is helping generate it.”
—Peterson, Kristina. 2013. “Smile, Kid, It Might Make Your Richer.” Wall Street Journal, January 5.
TUTOR
(1) coach; educate; employed in the education of others; guide; have guardianship; instruct; lecture; mentor; teach; train
Word Used in Sentence(s)
(1) “I believe, with abiding conviction, that this people—nurtured by their deep faith, tutored by their hard lessons, moved by their high aspirations—have the will to meet the trials that these times impose.”
—Lyndon B. Johnson, 36th president of the United States (1908–1973)
(1) “If any of them that come through the program are having trouble in math, I’ll tutor them. (Teaching) is the most important thing I do.”
—William Booth
(1) “Research shows that children do better in school and are less likely to drop out when fathers are involved. Engaged parents can strengthen communities, mentor and tutor students, and demonstrate through their actions how much they value their children’s education.”
—Arne Duncan, American educator, secretary of education Obama administration
UNDERSTAND
(1) assume that something is present or is the case; believe to be the case; know and comprehend something; infer from information received; interpret or view in a particular way; perceive the intended meanings of something
Word Used in Sentence(s)
(1) “Coaching and mentoring are firmly committed to grappling with human behavior and understanding what motivates people, but decidedly not about getting employees’ romantic lives in order, dealing with their eating disorders, forging close personal friendships, and such.”
—Nigro, Nicholas. 2003. The Everyday Coaching and Mentoring Book. Avon, MA: Adams Media, 13.
(1) “Understand that each and every individual employee is a unique person who needs to be recognized as such, if the philosophy is to be lived and realized.”
—Nigro, Nicholas. 2003. The Everyday Coaching and Mentoring Book. Avon, MA: Adams Media, 59.
(1) “Understanding the values of the person or team you are developing will enable you to build rapport and create meaningful connections.”
—Hayashi, Shawn Kent. 2012. Conversations for Creating Star Performers. New York: McGraw Hill, 41.
(1) Career counselors and mentors should help their clients and protégés understand that career development is lifelong, based on a sequential series of educational and occupational choices.
(2) promise; guarantee; to give a pledge
Word Used in Sentence(s)
(1) Career development is not something someone should undertake just when they become unhappy in their position or lose their job.
(1) He always volunteered to undertake the most difficult tasks on the team.
(1) Undertaking difficult tasks demonstrates a willingness to take risks—a leadership trait.
(2) answer; crack; explain; expose; get to the bottom of; reveal; solve; unravel; work out
Word Used in Sentence(s)
(1) “The purpose of coaching and mentoring is to unlock human potential on the job by fashioning a work environment that is most conducive to helping employees reach their personal best.”
—Nigro, Nicholas. 2003. The Everything Coaching and Mentoring Book. Avon, MA: Adams Media Corp., 59.
Word Used in Sentence(s)
(1) “My theory is that one needs to be loved completely, unconditionally, and unfettered by parental disapproval, if one is to get happily through life which, after all, presents its own hurdles.”
—Arabella Weir, British comedian, actress, and writer (1957–)
Word Used in Sentence(s)
(1) “True ideas are those that we can assimilate, validate, corroborate, and verify. False ideas are those that we cannot.”
—William James, American philosopher and psychologist (1842–1910)
Word Used in Sentence(s)
(1) “Try not to become a man of success, but rather try to become a man of value.”
—Albert Einstein, American physicist (1879–1955)
(1) “The value of a man should be seen in what he gives and not in what he is able to receive.”
—Albert Einstein, American physicist (1879–1955)
Collocates to: added, artistic, dollar, education, entertainment, face, market, stock, system
Word Used in Sentence(s)
(1) “We get information in the mail, the regular postal mail, encrypted or not, vet it like a regular news organization, format it—which is sometimes something that’s quite hard to do, when you’re talking about giant databases of information—release it to the public and then defend ourselves against the inevitable legal and political attacks.”
—Julian Assange, Australian editor, activist, publisher, and journalist
VEX
(1) aggravate; agitate, anger; annoy; bug; confound; displease; exasperate; irk; irritate; puzzle; rile; upset
Word Used in Sentence(s)
(1) “A very good part of the mischief that vex the world arises from words.”
—Edmund Burke, British statesman and philosopher (1729–1797)
Word Used in Sentence(s)
(1) From your first entry-level job to your last day working, you will be vying with other contenders.
(2) make vital; provide life to; give vigor and animation to
Word Used in Sentence(s)
(1) “Truth is used to vitalize a statement rather than devitalize it. Truth implies more than a simple statement of fact. ‘I don’t have any whiskey,’ may be a fact but it is not a truth.”
—William S. Burroughs, American author, also known by his pen name William Lee (1914–1997)
(1) “History is the witness that testifies to the passing of time; it illumines reality, vitalizes memory, provides guidance in daily life, and brings us tidings of antiquity.”
—Marcus Tullius Cicero, ancient Roman lawyer, writer, scholar, orator, and statesman (106 BC–43 BC)
(2) to freely choose or offer to give assistance without being asked or obliged
Word Used in Sentence(s)
(1) Job seekers should look for opportunities to volunteer to participate on committees of the trade associations and professional societies that represent the industries, fields, and professions of interest.
Word Used in Sentence(s)
(1) Every job seeker should write a career plan because it is an exercise in goal setting and orientation.
Word Used in Sentence(s)
(1) The switch from “I’m thinking about switching careers” to being a job searcher is the latter is zoned in on the work, resources, time, effort, and commitment needed to succeed.
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