A good friend, who happens to be one of the smarter people I know, recently told me she goes into an out-of-body, cold-sweat state when she’s interviewing.  She knows it has cost her plenty of jobs, but she feels powerless to change her fate.  People who can really hit the ball out of the park in job interviews are few and far between.  For the large majority of people, however, interviewing is a dreadful, intimidating experience.  This doesn’t have to be you. The truth is, every interviewer is hoping you’re “the one,” the perfect candidate, the answer to their prayers, an end to the tedium of interviewing dozens (if not hundreds) of candidates.  So remind yourself that people are in fact rooting for you, not against you.

As a former recruiter and recent interviewer for a business development position at my firm, I was struck by the contrast in how various candidates performed in final round interviews.  Here are six key things to keep in mind that could make (or break) your next interview:

Be enthusiastic

Aaron, one of the first candidates I interviewed, was cool and reserved.  He acted more like a disinterested old pal who had known me for years than an enthusiastic potential colleague when I stuck out my hand to say hello. I was turned off immediately.

The importance of being warm, friendly and enthusiastic cannot be overstated. You have everything to lose and nothing to gain by being overly cool at the beginning of an interview.  Please show how thrilled (!) you are to have gotten an interview.  If you can’t muster up the energy to demonstrate that you’re grateful for my time and the opportunity, you might as well not show up at all.

Be prepared

Another no-brainer, but again, one of the candidates I interviewed screwed this part up.  We live in the Information Age.  Chances are pretty good that the organization you’re interviewing with has a website.  Scour that thing and make sure you know your stuff!  What’s their mission?  What’s their competitive advantage? How do they define and differentiate their key products and services?  Why do you love the company?  And what don’t you understand about it? (Keep those notes for the “do you have any questions for me?” segment of the interview).

Set up Google alerts on the company before the interview so that you are on top of current events.   Research the team on LinkedIn.  If something major is going down, like a new product rollout, a management change or a shift in strategy, you’ll look a hell of a lot smarter if you know about it beforehand (assuming it’s public).

Practice, practice, practice.

Practice? Practice?  Are we talking about practice? Yes, indeed we are.  Come up with key questions that will likely be asked of you:

• Why are you interested in this position / organization? (You should nail this question!  Amazingly, a lot of people eff it up….)
• Which of your skills / past experiences make you a great candidate?
• What has made you successful in past positions?
• What differentiates you from other candidate we’re speaking to?
• How have you addressed areas of development in the past?

Have a friend or spouse or parent (even if it mortifies you) interview you and give you feedback.  And then practice some more.

A critical point: it’s a gift to be given notice about a part of an interview— don’t waste it. If you’re told in advance to have something prepared for your interview – a presentation, a lesson, a pitch – make sure you nail it – at least when you’re preparing.  Josh, one of the sub-par candidates I met, seemed very unrehearsed, trying to come up with examples on the spot. It’s better to use notes than not have any and fumble through the process.

Manage your nervous symptoms

Sweaty palms, dry mouth, a nervous laugh—if you suffer from any of these symptoms, have a plan to counteract them.  Ask for a glass of water or tissues if you need them.   Take a moment to catch your breath if you get flustered.  Have gum or mints on hand for before or after the interview.

Be sure to have a bottle of water with you and take a sip if you need it.  It’s not a crime to be anxious, but please don’t make your interviewer listen to the sound of your dry mouth!

Share your vision of yourself in the position

Mark, one of the best candidates I met with, walked me through his virtual business plan demonstrating how he would be successful in the position he was trying to score.  He talked about who he would meet with, how he would describe the program to potential clients and even incentives he might offer to get new business off the ground.  Mark was extremely effective in showcasing that he understood the role and would hit the ground running if given the chance.

Follow up

Irrespective of whether you think the interview was a huge success or that you bombed it, send a thank you note (email is fine) within 24 hours.

The world is small and your professional network even smaller.  There is a good chance you’ll cross paths again with your interviewer or someone at the prospective company.  You just spent 30 – 60 minutes talking to someone and they are now a part of your professional network. You can keep in touch with that person and make something of the relationship, job or no job.

If you did a so-so job in the interview, your thank you note is the perfect place to raise points you may not have hit on during the interview – at this point it can only help your cause.

Finally, if you’re lucky enough to be one of those naturally fabulous interviewees, or you were having a charmed day, you still must send that thank you note, or you’re basically telling your interviewer you don’t want the job.  One of the top candidates I met with moved to the very top of my list with her remarkable thank you note.  Her enthusiasm and confidence sang from the page, and that’s exactly the type of person you want in your organization!

What do you think? Send us your thoughts on your top musts and busts of interviewing; we want to hear from you…

• Women start businesses at 1.5 times the national average
• Women now hold more bachelors and graduate degrees than men and make up one-third of all MBA candidates

BUT, (and this is a big but) 40% of large companies have no women on their boards and only 5 percent of startups are owned by women. What do you think about the stats?  Let us know…

Via MBA@UNC MBA Online & Women 2.0

Originally posted as a GOTJ Guest Post for the LinkedIn Blog

Finding a job in today’s market is daunting enough, even with friends and family cheering you on. But moving cross-country and looking for a job at the same time — it’s enough to throw any sane person over the edge. Launching a job search in a new city is undoubtedly harder than finding a new gig in your hometown, but today you’ve got more resources to help make the transition smooth, seamless and successful.  Here are 8 things to keep in mind as you load up your VW, board that plane, or head for the other coast…

1. Know Why You’re Moving

Ask yourself the tough (or obvious) questions and be straight with yourself.  Are you making a lifestyle choice, (Boulder anyone?) moving to be close to friends and family, or making a career change? Any of these factors will likely impact your job prospects and earning power post-move.  Whatever the case, be honest with yourself about the reality of the situation and adjust your expectations accordingly.

2. Get to Know Your new City

Start reading the local papers online and find some niche blogs that speak to you. Research the business drivers in your new city—is your destination a high tech zone, like Silicon Valley; a booming college-town like Austin, Texas or a burgeoning start-up community like Chicago? How robust is the local economy? Are you moving to Bismark, ND (3.8 % unemployment) or Detroit (10.8% unemployment)?  Take into account the strength of the local economy as you factor in how long your job search will actually take.

3. Tell the World you’re Moving!

Update your LinkedIn profile with your headline — “moving to Minneapolis — looking for a new job in consumer products.”  Post your new status on Google+, Twitter, Facebook — and any other social networking sites you use. Send personal messages to your trusted LinkedIn connections and let people know you’re coming to town. A cross-country move is a great excuse to reach out to former colleagues or classmates and ask for assistance with introductions, informational interviews, or job leads.

4. Leverage Your Network

It’s time to leverage your network and start building new relationships. Use LinkedIn Groups to find like-minded job seekers or networking groups in your new city. The Groups Directory page will give you suggestions of groups to join or allow you to search by keyword or category. And don’t underestimate the power of your alumni network. My Cornell alumni page on LinkedIn is a treasure trove of information — it gives me an incredible dashboard that tells me where fellow alumni live, who they work for and what they do. In a single snapshot, I can tell who is working in business development in the San Francisco Bay Area and presto — I’ve got my target list of people to reach out to to find a biz dev job in that city.

For the more adventurous who want to take networking offline, consider joining an in-person MeetUp group. The Portland Job Seekers Group, for example, hosts regular networking and recruiting events around town.

5. Ask for Help

Once you’ve tapped into your network, old and new, go ahead and take the plunge— ask for the help you need. People relish being the expert on their city and enjoy helping friends and acquaintances find their footing in a new locale. Ask your friends, friends of friends, friends’ parents— who they know who can help your cause. Be as specific as possible in your requests for help.  Do you want contacts in digital media and entertainment or are you looking for informational interviews with consumer products professionals in Cincinnati?

I recently spoke to a job seeker who’s moving to Chicago from New York City.  Micah relies extensively on both her alumni network and LinkedIn community—asking her growing network for help with everything from putting her in touch with local headhunters, making introductions to contacts at financial services firms, even recommending pre-schools for her toddler.

6. Make the Job Search Work for You

There’s absolutely too much information out there to sift through. Instead, make your job search work for you by using the advanced search function in LinkedIn Jobs and searching jobs by keyword, zip code, date posted and more, so that you are only seeing the most relevant and interesting jobs. You’ll also have the ability to see who you’re connected to at respective employers, giving you a great leg up to learn more about a specific company or position. You can also create saved searches and email alerts when new jobs are posted that meet your criteria.

For even more help creating a personalized job search tool, check out Lindsey Pollak’s recent post on curating your own personal job search feed, which gives you great tips on setting up personalized job search alerts from all of your favorite job search sites.

7. Expect to Fail (a little bit….)

Don’t get discouraged if you don’t find a job immediately.  There are bound to be bumps and bruises along the way, so plan for hiccups.  Stay busy.  Job search in coffee shops so that you’re not home alone feeling blue.  Get a part-time job or volunteer to get to know people and become engaged in your new community.  Whatever you’re hoping to accomplish, assume it will take longer than expected.

8. Pay it Forward

Finally, reach out and thank all of those who helped you along the way.  Close the loop and let people know how things turned out. And of course, think about how you can return the favor and pay it forward.  Who can you help with a job search or write a LinkedIn recommendation for?  How can you give back to your new (or old) community?  Keep your good fortune in mind the next time someone asks you for a job lead or think about what you can do to help a friend who’s recently been laid off.

With the group’s success, Patty’s tough-love approach was validated (much more clearly, perhaps, than that of the show’s previous tough-love artist Simon Cowell). Though her tactics were questionable, they certainly brought out the best in her team; she truly helped them to become better singers and performers. I’m not saying that you should go out and be like Patty, but if you’re young, ambitious and motivated, you should take a page from that foursome.

Go out and find the most qualified or talented mentor, coach, or manager you can, and subject yourself to everything they can throw at you.

As a rookie, you’re not necessarily supposed to know anything, anyway. All you’ve got is your good attitude, your enthusiasm and a strong work ethic. And when you’re new to a job, people expect you to have bumps and bruises along the way as you move up the learning curve. You also want to take that drubbing now so that you avoid it later on (when your ego takes more of a bruising, when the thought of an 80-hour workweek and simultaneous childcare makes your stomach turn, or when you think you’re simply too old to take that kind of treatment from someone else). So take advantage of that early grace period and test the waters, take risks, put yourself in harm’s way so that when the stakes are higher and you’re not allowed to mess up, you’re uber-qualified and up to whatever task comes your way. You don’t need to be a masochist to really get out there and try your mettle — and learn a lot.

I had a Patty of my own early in my days on Wall Street, and I can’t say enough about how much I learned under his tutelage. His name was Will and he was whip-smart, utterly unflappable, relentless, standing out from all of his type-A overachiever peers at our investment firm.

In fact, a lot of my own peers ran like the plague from a staffing with Will, but for some reason I actually sought him out and asked to work with him. As scared as I was of subjecting myself to his intimidating brilliance, I think I was more terrified of not being able to hold my own with him — what would that say about my own future in the hard-knocks world of Wall Street?

So I decided to take my pain early and learn as much as I could from the master. I found that he and I were kindred spirits in terms of our senses of humor and I managed to tease him about being so smart and demanding when I wasn’t falling flat on my face or screwing up a piece of analysis. But bit by bit, I managed to hold my own and as time went on I began to not only to meet his expectations but to exceed them.

I’ll never forget the elation of getting a shout out from Will for work well done — that really meant something. It meant something to me and it signaled to others that I was legit. After that successful engagement with Will, I rode that victory into other demanding teams and carried with me a new found sense of confidence in my abilities.

Who is your Will? Who can you learn from? How can you challenge yourself and take your game up a notch? If you’re young and ambitious and driven, don’t run from the challenge, run towards it. If you’re terrified of a star manager in your organization, go find a project to do with him or her. Cram as much learning as you can into the front end of your career. You may not love it while you’re going through it, but you’ll carry that learning and success with you as you move up the ladder.

The singers on American Idol have bigger fish to fry than Patty now, but no doubt as they practice and sing their hearts out on national TV, they’re grateful for the discipline, the learning, and the coaching they received from her that set them on their way.

After many years of being denied promotions and a continued lack of recognition, Steven, a senior director at Cisco Systems decided he needed to make a change. His quiet nature and somewhat passive approach were interfering with his need to be visible. Senior management and other influential people weren’t aware of his value to the organization. He recognized how important it was to increase his visibility and become known in the organization.

Over a nine-month period, Steven worked hard to become visible, stand out and get noticed. He gained the recognition he wanted and the promotion he deserved.  How did he do it? By following the seven steps below to increase his visibility at work.  Follow these same steps to increase your chances of being rewarded for your hard efforts at work:

1. Seek out projects. To become a leader, you’ve got to develop initiative. Find productive projects and actively seek to get involved. Be pro-active and ask your supervisor to get assigned to high profile, important or challenging projects.  Seek out projects that have attention and visibility at senior level or ones that others have avoided or perceived as risky.   Push yourself outside your comfort zone and focus on areas that boost revenue or the bottom line.

2. Leverage your manager. Turn your manager into your missionary.   Seek out opportunities to represent your department or boss at meetings she usually attends.  This gives you opportunities to shine, and also frees up time on her calendar.

3. Gain face time with top executives. Look for ways to interact with the top management of the company. Help them put a face to the name. Volunteering for high-profile projects and committees will help.

4. Find cross-departmental opportunities. Expand your horizons. Work in accounting? You should look for ways to get involved in projects in sales, marketing, back office operations and communications. The reverse is true as well: If you work in sales, a thorough understanding of the support functions of the company will make you a better sales manager.

5. Become involved outside your job. Be a leader in your professional or trade organization. Write for industry publications. Get involved in community functions and charities – especially your company’s work initiatives. Chances are excellent you will make valuable contacts outside your workplace in the process. Opportunity can come from any direction. Give it an opportunity to find you.

6. Speak up and share. If you have an idea that will benefit the company, don’t keep it a secret. Instead, bring it up in a meeting and get it implemented. Always be prepared to take “ownership” of your ideas.

7. Become well-known and recognized. Become an expert in your industry. As you become recognized as an expert, people will seek you out for your knowledge and consider you to be an industry leader. Find speaking opportunities that highlight your expertise at conferences and trade shows.

Become visible right now. Don’t wait to feel comfortable. Take action now by selecting at least two ideas from the above list and implementing them over the next week.   Get results?  Send us your success stories in the comments!

Joel Garfinkle is recognized as a top 50 leadership coach in the U.S.  He has worked with leading companies, including Google, Amazon, Starbucks, Deloitte, Cisco Systems and more. He is the author of seven books, including Getting Ahead: Three Steps to Take Your Career to the Next Level.  Subscribe to his Leadership newsletter and receive the FREE e-book, 41 Proven Strategies to Get Promoted Now!

A first impression is like a headline. People are going to check you out and decide immediately if they are interested in knowing more—so it’s vital to make an impactful first impression at the start of every conversation. People often relate a first impression with a face-to-face meeting, yet initial impressions often precede in-person meetings. Every type of communication with someone new shapes his or her overall impression of you. Here’s how you make every first impression memorable—in person, on the phone, via video chat or in plain old writing…

1. In-person

Presentation is the key to a strong face to face first meeting. Everything from appearance, body language and how you speak will affect how you come across. You know how important it is to dress appropriately and be well-groomed, but do you sit up straight and keep from fidgeting? Do you make direct eye contact and exude confidence? All of these details will factor into your impression. How you handle conversations is extremely important. Balance being a good listener with being an engaging speaker, and most importantly, be interested in what the other person has to say!

People often confuse being professional with being boring or dry. Showcase your personality, just keep it appropriate. Whether it‘s a job interview or meeting a potential client, people are more impressed with vibrant personalities than flat and uninteresting ones.

2. Over the phone

If you are speaking to someone you’ve never met, the entire impression is contingent on your conversation skills. To begin, make sure that you are speaking in the right environment. If the phone call is scheduled, be sure to take it in a quiet place without any distractions. If you are being called at a specific time, don’t answer the phone with a hesitant or too-casual greeting. You already know who is calling, so answer authoritatively. If you’re making the call, always begin by asking the other person if it’s a good time to speak. Organization will help make your initial phone call a success. Have a list of questions and any other materials you need at the ready. Take notes on the call for later reference. Being prepared will allow you to speak confidently without “um’s” and “uh’s” derailing the conversation.

3. Through email

The subject line is often the most-neglected part of an email—don’t disregard its importance. Work on writing a subject line that is specific and personable. Ask yourself, “Would I want to open this message based on the subject line alone?” Tone is also critical. Be professional but personable. When reaching out to someone for the first time, you want the person to get a sense of who you are. Don’t use improper English or text message-style abbreviations. Read the message out loud to yourself before sending it to help you catch mistakes and let you hear how you are coming across.

4. Via video chat

Video chat first impressions combine the attributes of in-person, phone and email interactions. As with an in-person meeting, it is important to focus on your appearance when meeting virtually. You want to be well-organized and conduct the meeting from a quiet spot without distractions. Your setting will factor into how you come across. If you are sitting at a messy desk, you might give off the impression that you are disorganized. Look at your space from an outsider’s point of view before the chat begins. Technology can be fickle, so always check your connection, your speakers and your microphone before the video conference is scheduled to begin. Give yourself adequate time to fix any problems ahead of time so that you don’t have to struggle with it while the other party waits.

5. Follow-up

A proper follow-up is the final component of a first impression. Sending a thank you note or a follow-up email shows that you appreciated the person’s time and that you’re thinking about next steps.

The best first impression is about more than being memorable. You also want to show people that you remember them. It is two-sided, so the strongest impact relies on a mutual appreciation for the meeting. Be yourself, be kind and be ready to connect. Don’t forget, every impression counts.

Erin Palmer is a writer and editor for Bisk Education. Erin works with Villanova University’s online human resource courses, which allows students to earn a certificate in human resources. Erin can be reached on Twitter @Erin_E_Palmer.

If the first female CEO of Big Blue thinks she’s under-qualified, one wonders how the rest of women are stacking up on the self-confidence and self-promotion scales? There has been a lot of discussion recently about women’s tendency to think of themselves — and promote themselves — less assertively than men. These calls to action are inspirational, but maybe there’s another way for women to think about this issue–a way that’s less about inspiration, and more about cold, hard math.

Here’s where I think women get it wrong: we are perpetually rounding down, where, by all rules of mathematics, we should be rounding up. And that slight miscalculation has huge repercussions in our professional lives.

In school, if you graduate with a 3.76 grade point average, you round up and call it a 3.8. In politics, when the polls tell you candidate A is leading the pack at 28%, you can sure bet the numbers didn’t shake out to a perfect integer. And when economists talk about our federal deficit, they’re rounding up (or down) to the nearest gazillion.

This isn’t fudging the numbers, or being deceitful; it’s an accepted mathematical tool that says that when the amount by which you round is small in comparison to the magnitude of the quantity you are measuring, it’s just as well to go with a, well, “round” number.

But that small difference can still have a dramatic effect. Take Vegas, where the casinos have built a hugely profitable business model on seemingly tiny odds. The house advantage in blackjack is a mere 0.17% on a single-deck game (The advantage goes up from there–potentially as high as 0.66% for multiple decks). But that 0.17% edge is all the house needs to make heaps of money over the long term. For women, a seemingly small delta could be equally powerful. 

And yet, women aren’t using this mathematical convenience correctly, or to their benefit. Instead, we inevitably place outsized value on the downside of our calculations, on the outstanding risks, on the unknown. Similar to Rommety thinking she wasn’t qualified for the job, women round down: if we’re 60% qualified for a job, we give ourselves a 0 and don’t apply. Why round down rather than up when we’ve long been taught that a 0.5 gets rounded up to 1? And even when we feel 70%, 80% or 90% qualified for a job, we’d never be so bold as to round ourselves up to 100%. We look at that margin of error and assume the worst, not the best. But rational math actually tells us that we should be rounding up in that scenario.

A female CEO of a commodities trading firm once told me about her internal hiring challenges. She said that every time she posted a job opening requiring eight qualifications for a candidate, she would have a trove of men banging down her door demanding the job or promotion. They would invariably tell her they were the absolute right person for the job while actually only having four, maybe five of the qualifications listed. She’d then notice that no senior women approached her about the job. So she would reach out instead, and time and time again, the women would respond, “I wanted to apply, but I only have six of the qualifications, so I’m not the right person.” The men rounded up, often lobbying for the job when they had a mere 50% of the stated qualifications (not even 51%!) while the women with 75% of the skills needed, took themselves out of the running. The men, masters of rounding up, had given themselves a chance, while the women, more qualified than any of them, had simply bowed out.

What a revolution we could unleash if women simply started using principles of mathematics to round correctly — and to prove to ourselves that our ideas are brilliant, our contributions worthwhile, our monetary value equal to that of our male counterparts! This small but cold, hard, rational tweak in our thinking could have a major impact on our outcomes: higher salaries, better jobs, and a real, true strength we’ve been afraid to admit is ours.

The old saying goes “size doesn’t matter” but you seem to think that it does– and in fact bigger is not necessarily better.  Can you explain that?

Size doesn’t matter. But satisfaction does. Too many entrepreneurs are told and believe that bigger is always better. As a result they pursue a “growth for growth’s sake” business model and make steep compromises in the process. Instead we encourage entrepreneurs to be very clear about their own motivations and goals and then build a company that is big enough to achieve that. Only your specific goals can determine the right business size. Very small companies can be very successful and satisfying or limiting depending on those goals. But it’s misguided and unsustainable to think that success comes from having a bigger business – more employees, more customers, more locations, etc. You can’t measure success with external comparisons or by following “proven” business models. You can only achieve success by making sure you get what you want from entrepreneurship.

What should your goals be as you start your own company?

We aren’t in the business of telling people what their goals should be. Instead we are in the business of helping people to identify and honor their goals as their build their companies. I think people underestimate the variety of reasons that entrepreneurs strike out on their own. Some want freedom, others autonomy over their time; others desire creative control, while others can’t stand being told what to do. Each wants to make money – but that amount can vary greatly. No matter what your specific motivations are, they have profound implications for not only how you initially structure your company but how you continue to grow it as well.

How does this approach impact you and your partner Amy Abrams, in launching and running your own business?

It means that we have trained ourselves to ask very different questions when considering a particular opportunity. Instead of asking if people will buy it or whether something will make us more money, we ask questions such as: Is this really the business that we are in? Is this want we want to be known for? Will this give me the opportunity to do more of the work I love or less? Will this require me to compromise on something that is personally important to me? Will this help me achieve the kind of success I am looking for?

This kind of continual evaluation isn’t easy but it’s worth it!

As you ask in the book, what do you (and Amy) do best?

We do very different things best. I love information gathering, writing, thought leadership, strategy, execution, and learning. I am very good at details when I want to be but if my role is too-operational I get bored. I am also fairly introverted. It’s easy for me to spend a lot of time with my computer. I’m less inclined to meet people in person without a structure or purpose. Doing the interviews and promoting this book has required a lot of in person time but because there is a structure I’ve surprisingly been very comfortable with and energized by it. I love having time to explore and learn online (via blogs and social media) and reading magazines (like Businessweek, Newsweek, Inc., Fast Company) and business books. If I don’t have enough time to do that I lose energy. I have a really high sense of urgency so working for myself is a good fit. Operating under someone else’s slow timeline is excruciating for me.

There are lots of parts of my business that are well-suited for my skills and traits…and that is by design. But I’ve also had to surround myself with others who really thrive off of regular in-person connectivity and interaction. That’s why my partner is a giant extrovert!

What’s the one thing every entrepreneur should take away from this book?

It’s never too late to make your business work better for you. We all get it wrong from time to time and we’ve all been off-track. But no matter the compromises that you may have made, you are still the boss. It’s up to you where to go next and how to best achieve the rewards you want. Entrepreneurship isn’t being right or wrong it’s about continuous adaption and evolution. Your business gives you the opportunity to have the work and life you want on your terms, but you need to take advantage of that opportunity because it doesn’t happen on its own.

Adelaide Lancaster is an entrepreneur, speaker and co-author of The Big Enough Company: Creating a business that works for you (Portfolio/Penguin). She is also the co-founder of In Good Company Workplaces, a first-of-its-kind community, learning center and co-working space for women entrepreneurs in New York City. She is a contributor to The Huffington Post, a columnist for The Daily Muse and writes The Big Enough Company blog for Forbes.com. She lives in Philadelphia, PA with her husband and daughter. You can follow her on twitter here and here and on Facebook too.

Back in the day when I was growing up (think early 80′s) there wasn’t an adult whom I didn’t address as Mr. or Mrs. so and so. Grown ups were addressed with deference, distance, and formality and we kids knew what the protocol was. Today, I have a four-year-old whose friends all call me Jodi — and if someone were to address me as Mrs. Glickman, I’d do a double take and assume they were talking to my mother.

As goes our social world, so too goes the workplace. Addressing people by their first name is now the norm in corporate America (though not in the rest of the world — to the ongoing consternation of business travelers). And while there are critics and bow-tied traditionalists who will decry such an outrage or indecency or informality, I think that we all need to get with the times.

Using first names to address colleagues, clients, and bosses at work is good for both young and old, junior staffers and senior executives alike. For junior employees, it levels the playing field; for senior or “seasoned” managers, it implies accessibility — a commodity of increasing value in today’s social and digital age.

Level the playing field

When, as a young person, you address someone as Mr. or Ms., you immediately establish yourself as either a) younger or b) lower status, neither of which is particularly helpful to your cause professionally. Instead, walking into a room confidently with a “Hello, John, nice to meet you. I’m Jodi Glickman. It’s a pleasure to be here” establishes you as both confident and mature. It minimizes that status gap rather than amplifying it with a “Hello Mr. Smith, I’m Jodi…”

I learned and saw the value of this lesson early on. I was 29 years old when I started as a junior associate on Wall Street. I looked 25 if I was lucky. I was immediately thrown into meetings with senior bankers and corporate titans. My associate class was told by senior management explicitly to refer to everyone by first names, and not to use Mr. or Mrs., even with CEOs, as it would diminish our own standing. We were professionals, after all, just like the VIPs we were interacting with.

For me, knowing I had the backing of senior management to address clients by their first names helped with some of the fear I had of working with people much older (and presumably a lot smarter) than myself. That first name basis set the tone for future interactions and communicated to the lofty CEOs that we, the junior bankers, were in fact valued and had real contributions to make to the conversation.

Accessibility wins the day

As for managers and executives, the flat organization is where it’s at. Hierarchies are seen as stiff, outdated, stifling — in today’s social and digital age, innovation is the name of the game. Age and status cease to have a corner on the market. The move to the use of first names is part of this cultural shift of power to the people.

As Gary Hamel said in The Future of Management, “Hierarchies are good at aggregating effort (coordinating activities of many people) but they’re not very good at mobilizing effort — inspiring people to go above and beyond.” In our tech-savvy, hyper connected and social world, management innovation almost always pushes power downward and outward.

Demanding an underling use a more formal title now seems ridiculously outdated and perhaps even pompous. Richard Branson is a Sir and he goes by Richard and Oprah bared all in her behind-the-scenes show this spring — not once did I see a staffer call her Ms. Winfrey. By having your subordinates call you by your first name, you emphasize your accessibility without (as you may fear) diminishing your own authority or status.

It may be counterintuitive to look a powerful CEO in the face for the first time and call them boldly by their first name. And it may be hard as that CEO to swallow it. Maintaining the balance between informality and proper lines of authority and deference can be difficult. But this shift echoes the larger move to a more open, informal, and egalitarian business culture. To get left behind is to risk branding yourself as a dinosaur, and a less powerful/authoritative one at that.