3. In your cover letter use a little humor--mind you, just a little, and keep it tame. Don't sound like a comedian, but don't sound exactly like everyone else, either. You have to stop your reader’s eyes from glazing over somehow.

4. Most important of all: submit your application to a recruiter in addition to employers. It's a recruiter's job to sift through applications. They're much more likely to take an interest in you than some human resources officer. Several websites make it easy to submit your applications to numerous recruiters with one push of a button.

5. Most valuable time-saver: Submit your application to a "meta-search" jobs search website, one that will let you apply to listings on numerous other jobs websites at same time. There are well over a hundred individual jobs websites online, not to mention classifieds. You'll never get to them all on your own otherwise.

In conclusion, bad news is that you have even more competition than you thought when applying on a job search website. The good news is, it's a lot easier than you thought to make yourself stand out from competition. Just show prospective employer with as much respect as you want them to show you.

One of key challenges today is to teach and empower people to be more proactive at building teams. The primary predators of teamwork are not outside of team—it isn’t top management, it isn’t union or government, it isn’t weather, or stock holders. It is mindset, paradigms, values and beliefs we form as members of a work group. We see a disturbingly large number of people in organizations who play role of victim to these outside forces and lament about how unfortunate their work situation is, low level of moral, and what everyone is doing to them.

Once team members form perception that its problems are being caused by others or circumstances “out there,” they tend to over look real problems. Many have a “teamwork” blind spot and don’t see possibilities and potential that exists when we work as a team. They are too focused on events beyond their control, don’t harness available potential, and fail to create culture that they want. A team cannot fulfill its potential and solve problems if issues and concerns are not identified and addressed. When building teams, members will continue to struggle by avoiding work and thus rewards that can be achieved through constructive openness. Teamwork can prosper if everyone is willing to give up some of their control needs, let go of past baggage, break down fences and silos that becomes what some people refer to as a seamless organization.

With a little more effort and practice, team members will begin to recognize and take control of what goes on within their teams. Team members can determine and control how resources will be managed effectively, how they treat each other, how well they will communicate with each other, whether or not they will speak up in team meeting, amount of caring and sensitivity they will show to each other, whether they will support leadership, and display a level of self management.

The level of teamwork, probably more than any other element of organization life, is controlled by members of team. Team members can choose to act in skillful and empowered ways or they can be passive and give away responsibility and let external forces dictate quality and level of teamwork that will exist.

If you would like more information on building teams, effective teamwork or CMOE’s 25 years of team building experience, please contact a Regional Manager toll free at 888-262-2499 or (801) 569-3444.