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Category: Vocabulary

Better Check Out The New Look Of Ultimate Vocabulary 2015

Wordela is getting a makeover, and it will be ready in time for the new year! eReflect has been revamping Ultimate Vocabulary and providing it with a super user-friendly, sleek appearance and a wide range of new features and capabilities.

A revamped user-friendly interface

eReflect is proud of its user-friendly Wordela interface. Creating educational software for children and adults is a challenge and eReflect has found the recipe for a learning environment that’s user-friendly and fun to practice with. The new Wordela interface is sleek, intuitive, and has all the core practices and features in prominent places on the menu.

Cloud-based

Taking advantage of cloud technologies, Wordela is keeping up with the latest trends in e-learning that call for cloud integration for smoother, more efficient learning.

As a result, the brand new Wordela is cloud-based, which means that you won’t have to download  any bulky files onto your device. You’ll simply enter your access and license details through the cloud and have instant access to all of its features and tools.

Being cloud-based, Wordela offers users the ability to create their account and access it from anywhere, from the classroom, the office, or their home. Wordela offers its range of features, activities, and games with the convenience of the internet, but without the distracting ads and slow-loading websites. It’s all in the cloud.

Personal profiles

Wordela takes personal achievement one step further by allowing users to create personal profiles and use these to track their progress, set goals, and earn success points for every practice and game they complete. The addition of personal profiles makes practice a more personal matter as each user can know at any time how much progress they’ve made. You can even share your scores with friends on Facebook.

Collecting success points and sharing scores on Facebook

An exciting new feature in Ultimate Vocabulary is the ability users now have to collect success points for every practice milestone they reach. Every game, activity, or exercise they finish will earn them points. These statistics are shareable on Facebook so that users can show off their learning progress with their friends and loved ones.

Wordela retains all its well-loved and immensely popular features and tools, and it’s also bringing in compelling new games and activities. With the 2015 version of this vocabulary software, you will never run out of practice material, no matter your age or learning goals.

Cross-posted on the Wordela blog.


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Fun Vocabulary Games You Must Play On Ultimate Vocabulary™ 2015

Ultimate Vocabulary™ 2015 is the most recent (and admittedly most fun) version of the vocabulary building software. Apart from frequently-praised features like being cloud-based and enabled for social media sharing, Ultimate Vocabulary™ has another appeal: it comes packed with fun, addictive games.

By playing only a couple of games per day, you will find yourself mastering your new vocabulary without much effort, and having heaps of fun at the same time. Technology’s great, isn’t it?

Crazy Clues

How well do you know your vocabulary? Crazy Clues is an addictive vocabulary game you won’t get enough of. The game offers a few letter clues for each word, but then you have to figure out the whole word. If you get stuck, don’t worry, because you can get a hint to get your brain going again!

This is the perfect game to brush up on new words you’ve mastered by emphasizing their spelling.

Crossword

An interactive word game you will want to play time and time again. Clicking on a empty square will give you a hint for the word across and down the puzzle. As far as this game is concerned, you’re as good as your word definition knowledge!

Unscramble

How fast can you spot a word that’s all scrambled up? Find out with Unscramble, a fun vocabulary game that’s bound to be your next favorite vocabulary game. The faster you figure out the word, the more hints you earn for subsequent rounds. The game offers you a bit of help by giving you the word’s definition.

Word Finder

Another compelling vocabulary game, Word Finder dares you to identify a list of words in a matrix of letters. The words can be aligned vertically, horizontally, backwards and forwards. Let the word hunt begin!

Flash Cards

Another classic vocabulary-boosting game, Flash Cards help you truly get a word’s meaning through repetition and with its definition as your only clue. You can adjust the speed to make the game more challenging!

Hangman

A new take on another classic word game, Hangman lets you guess the right word by only giving you the word’s definition. You have ten shots per word before your poor man is hanged.

Word Recall

A classic vocabulary game that will help you improve your vocabulary retention is Word Recall. Read the word’s definition and choose the correct word from the list.

Spelling Drill

You never truly master a word until you know how to spell it. Make sure you are the orthography master with Spelling Drill, a fascinating game that urges you to pay attention to word orthography for more balanced and complete vocabulary knowledge.

Vocab Match

This is a challenging but very amusing game. You must match the right definition with the right word to win the round. You have six different words to get right per round.

Vocab Memory

If you think memory has nothing to do with vocabulary knowledge, think again. Vocab Match tests your vocabulary recalling power by letting you see a word under one card, then challenges you to find the matching definition under another card – hopefully, before you forget that word’s meaning!

Cross-posted on the Ultimate Vocabulary blog.


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Play With Words & Become A Blogger Yourself

These days it seems as if anyone can become a self-published blogger or online writer. It only takes a word editor and basic writing skills. Or does it?

Yes, there are bloggers who’ve been blogging for over two decades now. There are people who are leading experts in their field, and blogging about what they know comes naturally to them. But what about the rest of us, the small and medium businesses, the freelance professionals and the solopreneurs who wish to run and maintain a blog? Is it feasible to become a blogger if you’ve never really had a way with words?

Becoming a blogger is a process that assumes that you:

  • Love and know your subject

  • Have excellent writing skills

  • Have a marketing plan and stick to it no matter what

People who are passionate about and experts at what they do will have no trouble finding topics to talk about on their blog. You’ll find that especially if you’re a leader in your niche market, you will see how quickly people will become dedicated blog readers.

However, when it comes to writing skills, you won’t keep those readers if your English isn’t in tip-top shape. Yes, typos and misspellings do happen and people will forgive them or ignore them occasionally, but if you fail to abide by simple 4th grade grammar rules, this will harm your blog and the reputation you’re trying to build around your brand.

If you want to start a blog, ensure you first brush up your writing skills — especially spelling and vocabulary. Even if at first you’re only using text messages or a Twitter feed, make sure you know the meaning of the words you’re using, and that you’re spelling them correctly. Proper English and good grammar will never go out of style. By ensuring you write professionally in every medium, you’ll create a stepping stone towards writing blogs that will (potentially) go viral.

Bloggers who are fanatically followed and read by their communities are the ones who have self-improvement and self-education as their top priorities. These are people who are able to contribute new ideas, introduce new perspectives, and find new ways to solve a problem or unveil an ignored factor people couldn’t see before.

That being said, ensure you are active in your market so that you know what you’re writing about. Learn about the latest developments, see what’s trending, and take note of what is falling in popularity. Learn new words and concepts introduced in your market and in the wider social discourse as well. This way, your writing will reflect this relevancy and radiate the self-confidence of a knowledgeable, expert blogger.

Finally, remember some basic rules for blogging:

  • Write in a conversational tone. Use “you” a lot to make the blog post more shareable and personal.

  • Storytelling is a great hook. Use this technique to intrigue readers into staying on the page.

  • Write compelling content. Use numbers, cite studies, and share stats to drive a point home. These help build trust.


Have something to add to this story? Share it in the comments

Cross-posted on the Ultimate Vocabulary blog.

Spend your Free Time On These 5 Activities and Learn Interesting Things

It’s sometimes just too tempting to spend your free time playing games on your smartphone, or hanging out with your friends. That’s fun, for sure, but spending your time more constructively will provide you with more benefits in the long term.

There’s really no excuse for saying, “I’m bored out of my mind,” given the many fun activities you can try. Choose any of the following activities and make the most out of your free time!

Read a good novel, or a self-development book

Reading should be your go-to habit when you have free time on your hands. Reading expands your knowledge and keeps you up to date with new developments in your career. Not to mention that the news and knowledge you gain will make you an interesting person at parties and social gatherings!

Utilize your free time for learning. It will help you professionally and personally. Create a free-time reading list and go back to it each time you’ve a few hours to kill.

Keep your mind, knowledge, and memory sharp with a self-development book or biography, if fiction is not your cup of tea, and you’ll get two benefits in one.

Write/Blog/Live Tweet

If you think you’re as a good a writer as Shakespeare, why not make your own attempts at it?

Even if you don’t, writing is an excellent way to spend some time. It doesn’t have to be anything formal you will submit to a publishing house. Do it for fun, do it to sharpen your writing skills, and nurture your creativity!

Try guest blogging on anything you’re passionate and knowledgeable about — from Star Trek to the Kawaii Japanese culture. Live tweet a special TV or sport event or blog to get those thoughts and feelings out of your system and into the wider world.

Learn a new language

You’ve probably heard this tip a thousand times, but being bilingual offers many cognitive, social, and professional benefits. It’s a shame not to even try it at least!

Just think of all the French movies you will get to enjoy without having to read the subtitles.

Take a course

You know how you always thought you were destined to be a philosopher? Even if your degree says MBA, you can always go nurture your passion for philosophy by enrolling in a free academic class. Look for one of the courses offered by many high-profile universities including Harvard, MIT, Yale, and more.

Sharpen your brain and memory

Brain games are notorious for being addictive, just like other games, but these have a point. Get hooked on a brain game by choosing any game from a great online resource such as Lumosity.com and Fitbrains.com by Rosetta Stone. There are also various app-based ones like 92 Logic Games and Left Vs Right.

Cooking

Many people find cooking a creative, stress-releasing activity. Whether you’re a seasoned cook or a novice who is just starting to experiment with new foods, cooking can be an exhilarating experience.

Try to see cooking as a stress-relieving activity instead of something you have to do every day. Take the opportunity to recreate some childhood classics – it might not be exactly like your mum’s lasagna, but just picture the satisfaction you’ll feel when you put that first mouthwatering cheese-dripping bite in your mouth.

Star-gazing and astronomy

Feed your existential preoccupations and romantic side with star-gazing. Name a star via an online service for that special someone in your life or subscribe to NASA’s newsletter and prestigious magazines like the Sky and Telescope and All About Space magazines to become an astronomy buff.

Volunteer

Share your time, skills. and knowledge with people who need it. Check volunteering opportunities at your campus, school, or community and you will find one you will be able to contribute through.

The possibilities for projects and learning are limitless. Make an annual list of things, skills, and  activities you want to accomplish and make sure you check one after the other each time you have free time to spare.

How To Maximize Your Time Playing Indoor Activities

Spring showers ruined your outdoor activities once again? Many parents dread rainy days because there’s not much room for creativity and play. Children easily get bored and distractions get into the way of learning – especially when the initial plan was to play tag in the yard and then go for a swim.

However, indoor activities can help your child learn new things and master essential skills. Indoor time doesn’t necessarily mean online games time. You can use technology in ways that are educational and constructive.

Vocabulary Improvement

Vocabulary is one aspect of language we never truly master. You can learn a new word every day and still have thousands of new words left to learn by the time you’re fifty. Why not invest in a vocabulary improvement software and play vocabulary games to improve the entire family’s vocabulary? People of all ages will benefit from adding new words to their lexicon.

A vocabulary exercise sharpens a child’s language skills and gives them new words and concepts to communicate with.

Spelling Improvement

Your child’s teacher might be doing an excellent job teaching students how to spell, but the true secret to spelling mastery is to learn to love spelling. Half the children in any given class probably hate spelling exercises, and most of the rest are generally indifferent. To get children interested in spelling the activities you engage them in must be fun. Did I say fun? I meant SUPER FUN.

Again, this is where a spelling program or website could come in handy. Create a two-hour spelling session with 3 to 5 brain breaks in between and play spelling games and other fun-based spelling activities like a spelling bee stand-off!

Keyboarding

While most online games don’t really help children learn to type, it’s a good idea to think of touch typing as a fun indoor activity that will entertain and educate at the same time.

Touch typing is crucial for your child’s academic performance this year, and will be needed until they graduate from college – and beyond. As technology becomes more entwined in every aspect of our lives, skills like keyboarding become the norm. The earlier your child learns to touch type the better off they will be.

Use indoor time to engage with a skill your child will benefit from throughout their entire life by helping them enhance their typing skills. The great thing is that keyboarding is one skill you can have a lot of fun with when practicing. In fact, you don’t even have to structure a keyboarding lesson as a lesson. After your child has learned the fundamentals, the entire learning practice can take place through typing games!

Reading Improvement

Reading has been touted as the key ingredient for personal success. Warren Buffet, the well known success maven, has testified to this, asserting that all he does all day is read in his office.

Unfortunately, cultivating a love for reading and learning in children can be a real challenge for teachers and parents. The secret is to make reading fun and effective.

What makes students dislike reading is often their lack of good reading skills. More often than not, they find reading boring because of bad reading habits, such as subvocalization and regression.

If children were to get rid of these reading-sabotaging habits then their reading speed would improve and they could effortlessly get through lots of reading material in less time.

Speed reading is more than the goal, it’s also a means to an end. When a student is a speed reader this further motivates them to study and learn more things. Essentially, a child enters a self-motivating circle of self-education and progress through the simple act of eradicating bad reading habits and improving their reading speed.

Indoor activity time shouldn’t be limited to sterile, uninspiring entertainment and passive pastimes like video games. Technology has spread out into the realm of education, and it is a parent’s duty to instill in their children a predilection for learning and self-development.

There are many online resources available where parents can find constructive, age-appropriate activities for their children. Here are some suggestions:

DiscoveryEducation.com,

PrimaryResources.co.uk

FamilyEducation.com

topmarks.co.uk.

Smarttutor.com

Raz-kids.com

Scholastic for Parents

These free, quality resources for parents will give you many ideas for learning activities and games for children from kindergarten up to 12th grade. For a more focused and structured learning experience on a particular skill, it’s wise to invest in the appropriate software. For instance, if you want to improve your child’s vocabulary you should consider getting a vocabulary program like Ultimate Vocabulary™.

Cross-posted on the Ultimate Vocabulary blog.

Why Writing Skills Need To Be Perfected

Can’t average writing skills meet your needs in most situations? I’m afraid the answer is “no.” If you want to move ahead in your career and personal life you need above-average writing skills.

There’s more to writing than you might think

Writing and its associated skills form a complex network of competency that rests upon many other important abilities. To be a competent writer, you need to have mastered spelling and proper grammar usage, you need to have a rich and deep vocabulary, and you must have the ability to express yourself with clarity and eloquence.

What this means is that good writing skills will be the proof of your skills in many other areas as well. You will come across as a smart, competent person — a prerequisite for any job on today’s competitive market. It’s not an exaggeration to say that there’s no better self-promotion tool than impeccable writing skills.

Your writing is a reflection of who you are

Even if your job doesn’t require a lot of day to day writing, whenever you’re required to write something, whether that’s an email or even a simple text message, people will still judge your intelligence and competence based on your writing.

While it may sound condescending and presumptuous to judge a person solely on their writing skills, it happens. People use the written word to see how a person thinks, what their values are, and what principles and ethics their lives are governed by.

Great writing skills help you construct and project a competent, intelligent, and persuasive personal brand. Bad writing skills will more likely cost you a shot at better career prospects.

The written word is supreme

Most office-based jobs require that you master written communication skills. In fact, most formal communication in companies is through the written word. Government proceedings, legal documents, and contracts are not orally communicated, they’re always expressed through formal writing.

Everything worthwhile and binding is in written form so it’s crucial that you’ve mastered writing skills by the time you start your career. In fact, the earlier you learn these skills, the better, since they will help you get the education you need to succeed in that career. You need to be able to write and communicate in a variety of contexts — a Q3 report is not the same as writing a grant proposal— but also be able to understand and process formal language content and avoid any misunderstandings and errors.

Read voraciously to improve your vocabulary, and when you are writing, try keeping your sentences short and simple even when using that advanced vocabulary. Follow formal style and format rules to get the most professional end result, and always spell-check and proofread your content. Writing skills are valuable, and worth the effort they take to acquire them.

10 Useful Websites For A Smarter You

Do you think you know everything? If you answered “yes,” then you can stop reading! But if like most people you answered “no,” here are 10 websites you should bookmark.

These websites are brimming with fascinating facts, motivating articles to improve your skills, and lots of ideas on how to channel your creativity and innovative thinking into your work and personal life. Yes, it’s high time you stopped looking at cat videos all day long.

Freerice

How often do you get a chance to improve upon a crucial life skill and at the same time contribute to society as a whole? Freerice lets you have your cake and eat it too. Freerice lets you improve your vocabulary, and for each correct answer you get, the company donates 10 rice grains through the World Food Programme. Cool, right?

Gibbon

Forget YouTube hits playlists. Gibbon is the self-learning playlist many people swear by. With Gibbon you can collect various articles, videos, and other types of content under a particular theme or category. Think of it as the Pinterest for self-improvement. You can learn virtually anything under the sun, from how to code to getting into the basics of 3D printing.

Lumosity

Ever think your memory could use a boost? Lumosity is the site you want to head to. It’s a science-based game website that exercises your brain. From memory and verbal fluency to spatial skills and attention performance, Lumosity ensures you don’t lose your edge.

Khan Academy

This is your chance to master a subject you were too sleepy to wake up in college in order to attend. Khan Academy offers a multitude of courses, including Math, Science, Computing and Microeconomics, just to name a few.

Nerd’s Fitness

A CrossFit junkie goes to the gym, but where does a nerd go to? Nerd’s Fitness. This website is for the geek in every one of us. There’s no such thing as being too devoted about your body and your health,  and that’s why Nerd’s Fitness exists. It gives you informative articles and how-to’s on getting fitter and stronger – and always from a nerdy viewpoint. Their number one rule: We don’t care where you’re coming from, only where you’re going.

Information is Beautiful

This website uses the magic of visuals to represent interesting information. We must agree, information never looked so appealing before. You can get data visualized on everything, from who rules the world,to figuring out the potential tax revenue if drugs were legally sold.

Elite Daily

Self-proclaimed as “The Voice of Generation Y,” Elite Daily should be your browser home page. You can read anything about and for Generation Y, or find great tips on how to improve your skills and master new qualifications. Plenty of cute, inspirational content is always available too.

TED

Attending star-studded seminars doesn’t need to cost you a fortune. TED brings them all to you for free. TED shares  the best stories and ventures right on your screen; you can watch inspiring videos on initiatives that seek to change our thinking, our world, and our future.

Unplug the TV

This website lets you shun the urge to sit on your couch passively watching whatever’s on TV. “Unplug the TV” recommends interesting videos you can seek out and watch on your computer or device. Once you start using these links, we can confidently say there will be no more NCIS reruns for you!

The World FactBook

Get mind-blowing facts about your own and other countries, and you will have ample conversation starters for the next office cocktail party!

Improve Your PR Content Writing In Five Easy Steps

Online content helps improve user engagement on social media platforms, remind consumers of your presence, authority and relevancy, and boost sales and profits – when done correctly.

Writing promotional public relations (PR) content for social media, blogs, websites, and other marketing purposes has its own set of rules you will have to follow. Apart from style, language, and other tips, there are practical parameters you need to adopt to instantly improve your PR-related content writing. We share 5 of them in this article.

Be alert and rested but not hyped.

Coffee is good, don’t get me wrong. But depending on caffeine to brainstorm ideas and create engaging copy is a deal with the devil.

You don’t want to grow dependent on (I decided to avoid the phrase “addicted to”) caffeine, because any level of productivity that depends solely on chemical stimulation is at best an erratic one. Instead, get up from your desk and stretch every 20 minutes, hydrate regularly, and take brief walks around the office to get the blood and ideas flowing. Caffeine is overrated.

Immerse yourself in inspiration.

Sitting at the same desk day after day will eventually have a toll on your writing, which will end up stale and derivative, just like your unchanging surroundings. To spice up your writing and give it more impact, amp up the “new” factor. Sit in the lobby with your laptop, go to an empty meeting room, or go up on the rooftop to write. Whatever breaks your routine will be enough to activate more innovative and imaginative writing.

Check your email often

You didn’t believe I’d actually say that, did you? But when I say “often” I mean “only on a regular schedule.” You don’t need to click every thirty seconds to see if you have new messages – that’s just procrastination. When you set a schedule for checking into the computer, you’ll keep yourself from being distracted.

Keep all electronic distractions away. Switch off your phone, sign out of social media, block the tempting websites you’ve visited so often. You know the drill. The fewer distractions you’re struggling with, the more relaxed and prolific you’ll be. If you know you have important messages coming in, set your timer to check every hour, but no more often.

Cultivate your empathy

Marketing has many principles you should follow, but only one is timeless and overlaps all mediums.

The most important principle is learning to really understand your audience and give them what they’re after. In other words, to empathize with them. Online marketing is different from conventional marketing in some ways, but you still need to listen to your audience, understand their concerns, fears, and desires, and, through your PR writing, deliver a message that resonates with them.

Get more emotionally intelligent and you will increase your social sensitivity. You will be able to grasp what lies beneath what’s being said and what people actually starve for.

This will help you deliver PR writing that will emotionally resonate with your audience and make them more eager to hear you out.

Give it the time it deserves

Sure, you have many other urgent tasks to handle, and spending 3 hours on a blog post seems like a luxury no one can afford, especially you. If you want PR writing that converts clients and increases sales, however, you need to give content the attention and time it deserves.

If it sounds impossible, go for quality instead of quantity. Post less often, but make sure when you do post, it’s something that is worthwhile. Each post you publish needs to provide answers to people, food for thought, or a new viral video to share with friends. Quality will never let you down, so devote ample time to your PR writing. Don’t regard it as an unimportant task, because it won’t pay off.

To recap, don’t depend on caffeine to keep you going, avoid as many distractions as possible, change your environment often, immerse yourself in inspiring contexts, and don’t ever take writing too lightly.

 

Ultimate Vocabulary guarantees to help you increase your vocabulary knowledge! Learn more words and apply them in your writings.

Ultimate Vocabulary Software Evaluated By Range Of Reviewers

Ever wonder what people who speak with such ease and charisma have done to become so influential and alluring? More often than not, their vocabulary has great depth and breadth, and they’ve mastered language use and enriched their language with concepts, ideas, and nuances so they can make every sentence accurate, colorful, and vibrant.

A speaker is effectively a painter. The more competent you are in mixing verbal colors, creating new variations and hues, the more impressive the end result will be. This means that the more constricted your word palette is, the less colorful and interesting your speech becomes.

Ultimate Vocabulary™ is like a variegated palette that equips people with the colorful words they need to speak accurately, masterfully, and above all effectively.

Ultimate Vocabulary™ is developed by eReflect, a leader in self-education software. The program has been evaluated by numerous high-profile organizations and companies. The reviews provide proof of the software’s effectiveness.

Top Ten Reviews editors award the 2014 Excellence Award to Ultimate Vocabulary™

A trusted software reviewer, TopTenReviews.com, has recently published its vocabulary building evaluations and has announced that Ultimate Vocabulary™ is at the top. The software was awarded both the Gold and Excellence 2014 awards by the editors of

TopTenReviews, proof of its unrivaled effectiveness.

With an overall rating of 9.9, the editors praised the software’s interactive, fun games, its breadth of lessons and activities, its cutting-edge, user-friendly technologies, and of course its larger than usual word database of over 142,000 words.

Word-Buff gives a verdict on Ultimate Vocabulary™’s effectiveness

Word-Buff is yet another established and trusted education-related specialist. Ultimate Vocabulary™ remained high on this reviewer’s list as well. The site’s owner, Derek McKenzie, teases apart every feature and tool of the software, mentioning both the pros and cons of the vocabulary builder only to finally conclude, “Compared to other programs Ultimate Vocabulary is by far the most sophisticated vocabulary builder I’ve used to date.”

Ultimate Vocabulary™ helps people expand their active vocabulary

In an in-depth interview with Marc Slater, managing director of eReflect, the company that developed Ultimate Vocabulary™, Slater discusses the advantages of owning a rich lexicon, and concludes that one way people can make a timeless investment in their own self-improvement is to improve their vocabulary with the help of a vocabulary builder.

The combination of ready-made, expert-developed word lists and the ability of each user to create their own word lists gives learners the both essential guidance and free rein to have the ultimate learning experience, one that leads to new vocabulary mastery.

Cross-posted on the Vocabulary Improvement blog.

Five Key Attributes For Hiring: What Business People Should Consider In Employees

What qualities should you look for in a potential candidate? Should they have amassed geek-level knowledge in their field? What about the qualities of being morally resilient and empathetic? Do you really need people with leadership skills, or candidates that can be proactive and tech-savvy?

The truth is, every business requires a specific set of attributes they are looking for in a candidate. We’ve narrowed it down to the five key attributes that all candidates ideally should exhibit, no matter the business or field they’re in.

Self-knowledge

This seem like a generalized attribute, but it’s an important one to look for in candidates. People who are aware of their limitations, weaknesses, and strengths are more flexible and eager to improve upon them.

If a candidate cannot stand up and own up to their mistakes, how can you expect them to correct a mistake, and learn to avoid it in the future?

People with increased self-knowledge are often aspiring, honest individuals that don’t seek to cover up their mistakes. Instead, they acknowledge them and make an effort to correct them. This is the kind of individual you want  to be part of your business.

A disposition and ability to learn

Always opt for candidates with a disposition and ability to learn. People who feel they know everything already are less likely to want to sit down and devote time to learning more. Their know-it-all attitude impedes future self-development and they won’t be adding any value should you integrate them in your team.

Those with a learning ability and eagerness for the process, however, are full of potential human resources. They are willing to devour new knowledge and skills because they strive for excellence.

Emotional intelligence and humility

It’s okay to be ambitious and assertive. But if these attributes are an employee’s only qualities, then that’s not enough. In fact, it can be a negative. Businesses need to look for people who can exhibit emotional intelligence in the form of humility, no matter their personal or professional aspirations.

Those people who are always after credit, rewards, and applause will do anything to keep themselves in the spotlight. They will always overshadow the efforts of others because of their unquenchable thirst for recognition.  Pursuing success is commendable. Humility, however, balances things. It reminds people when the time is right to step down, to interfere, or to give others an opportunity to try.

It takes emotional aptitude to know when to take a step back and when to claim glory. It takes courage and self-confidence to admit to your own mistakes. These are the attributes that a progress-focused company should want its employees to exhibit.

Failure

Yes, you want the most promising perfectionists to be part of your business, but the problem with people who never fail is that their learning opportunities were very limited in the process.

Failure means people taking risks, people believing in their visions and striving to make them come to life. More importantly, failure equals learning. It’s only through trial and error that we achieve success.

So don’t look for people who never fail. First, anyone who says they’ve never, ever failed are probably not telling the truth. And second, finding out what happened to a person after a failure is a way of learning about their resilience and whether they have that essential won’t-stop-trying attitude that will help your business keep moving forward.

Lastly, people who don’t claim to be all-successful are those who tend to be wiser. Their mistakes were life lessons that guide their future efforts and they demonstrate their tendency to take accountability for their failures and not blame others for them.

Enthusiasm

If you cannot see passion and enthusiasm in a candidate’s eyes, move onto the next person. Without enthusiasm, there’s no way an employee-to-be will be a good, long-term asset for your company.

People need drive and passion to excel, and if the candidate you’re looking at doesn’t have these, don’t expect them to excel at what they do.

Self-knowledge, an ability to learn, enthusiasm, humility, and the resources to cope with failure are the five key attributes you should be looking for when interviewing for your business. Of course, other qualities and skills will also make it to the list depending on the industry your company belongs to, but these five are the essential attributes you’ll want your future employees to absolutely have.