The Executive Update

Ask the Coach: Executive Job Market Re-entry

Every week, NETSHARE hosts Ask the Coach, a phone-in coaching session with leading career management experts. Here is an excerpt from the most recent session with Peter Engler, president of the Engler Career Group.

A common theme in many of our Ask the Coach calls is about re-entering the job search. If you have been successfully employed for 20 years as a senior manager, where do you start when you are suddenly faced with the prospect of finding a new job? What are the guidelines?

Peter’s response: Every case is different. What works for one executive candidate won’t work for another. There’s no question that it’s a lot of work to re-launch yourself after being with a company for five to 20 years. You aren’t a fresh worker bee looking to make a name for yourself. You have experience that companies need, but you need to understand how to approach them, and there are external resources that can help you. Peter offered some specific advice as to how to begin:

1. Understand what you want to do. No one can tell you what you want to be when you grow up, so if you are looking to make a job change or a career transition, you need to have a solid understanding of what you want from your next job. (If you are NETSHARE member, my weekly welcome call with members is a good place to get your feet wet. E-mail sarah@netshare.com if you want to learn more.)
2. Decide where you want to work. You don’t have to think about where the best jobs are, but you should think about your larger needs and wants. You have paid your dues, so figure out where you want to live when you start your search.
3. Identify local companies. Bear in mind that most companies don’t want to relocate candidates and would rather hire local talent. Develop contacts in the local market and make yourself know.

The Waiting Game of Salary Negotiation

One of the trickiest aspects of job search is salary negotiation. I recently had a conversation with a job seeker who had managed to land five offers ranging from manager to vice president, and he was seeking advice as to how to handle the salary negotiation.

Kim Batson, The CIO’s Coach, offered some very sound advice. She told the candidate, when pressed for a previous salary, avoid the question. Try to hold out for an offer first. If you offer a salary figure right away, it can put you out of the running before you have a chance to show your value, or it can shut the door on a higher salary and you could be leaving money on the table. You can use deferral techniques, such as telling the interviewer, “I am making a competitive industry wage for the job I perform and expect and appropriate salary for the responsibilities this position will have.” And you should never talk salary with anyone other than the person who has control of the purse strings, and that’s not HR.

Remember, if you are already into salary negotiation, they have already made a decision to hire you. Your objective now is to get the best price for your expertise. They have already made a decision to buy your talents, so this makes you the buyer. Negotiate your compensation. Start by negotiating a salary figure, then negotiate any benefits or perks.

Ask the Coach: Why Online Presence Is Important To Your Career

Every week, NETSHARE hosts Ask the Coach, a phone-in coaching session with leading career management experts. Here is a post contributed by last week’s coach Kim Batson, The CIO’s Coach.

To correctly manage your executive career and job search in today’s marketplace, you should have a strong online presence. Why? For these four reasons:

1. If you would prefer to be sought out, rather than always having to seek your next position, you need to be easily found on the ‘net by recruiters and potential employers. As Tom Peter’s said: “You are head marketer of the Brand called You.” Does your self-marketing strategy include a strong web presence? It should.

2. You can expect to be ‘googled’ before being called in for an interview. What does a search of your name reveal? Or not reveal? The answer can either strengthen or sabotage your chances for an interview. With a strong web presence you can establish credibility and highlight your thought leadership, which means that you are more likely to be called for the best opportunities. What are you missing out on by not having a strong web presence?  You may never know…but your competition may. Why not be the one to be called?

Ask the Coach: Steps to Building an Online Brand

Every week, NETSHARE hosts Ask the Coach, a phone-in coaching session with leading career management experts. Here is an excerpt from the most recent session with Kim Batson, The CIO’s Coach.

In this week’s call, there was a lot of discussion about online networking and building a web presence to promote your personal brand. One caller, a 50-year old executive, said she doesn’t see herself setting up a Facebook profile that talks about his favorite music or even a web page with photos from corporate meetings or copies of memos. There is so much hype about online networking and so many ways to use the Web to promote your personal brand, how do you go about it effectively?

Kim had some very practical advice. There are a number of networking platforms that are not just for professionals, such as Facebook. These networking sites can be hit or miss for executive networking but you have to build an online presence because you will be Googled before you are called.

Kim emphasizes that you need to be seen as a strong subject matter expert; a problem solver. You need to show the impact you have had on your industry.

The first step is to check out your online brand. Google yourself. If you have a common name, see what shows up and find ways to make sure that people can identify you as the right contact in a Web search. When you conduct a search for yourself, you should be able to find links within the first three pages.

Beyond Google: Tracking Your Online Brand

Now that the term “Googling” has become part of the lexicon of the Internet Age, it’s important for you to think about how online search drives your personal brand strategy. Remember, the majority of recruiters use Google as their primary tool when checking out a new candidate. You want to make sure those foolish YouTube videos or those embarrassing convention pictures aren’t the first thing that appears when someone looks you up on the Internet. So check out your online brand to see what the recruiters see. But don’t just search using the obvious suspects – Google, Yahoo, Ask, MSN, etc. You need to check out other online outlets to see how you stack up in terms of your personal brand:

Twitter has been gaining a lot of momentum among the technocracy, and it has its own search engine, Twitter Search. Twitter Search lets you track who is Twittering about you. You can even subscribe to mentions of you on Twitter using TweetBeep, which lets you keep track of mentions on Twitter.

If you want to track mentions on online forums, check out Twing, which gives you a fairly comprehensive way to track discussion boards. Omgili also lets you search discussion threads and you can even graph the results.

Ask the Coach: Resume Refresher

Every week, NETSHARE hosts Ask the Coach, a phone-in coaching session with leading career management experts. Here is an excerpt from the most recent session with Debbie Ellis, President of the Phoenix Career Group.

This week’s call included a number of questions about resumes, including what format to use and how to use them effectively.

One caller has had her resume out to the top 30 recruiters in her field for the last year. She recently overhauled her resume with help from as professional resume writer. Her question was whether it makes sense to send the new resume out to recruiters with a cover note asking them to update their database with the most current resume.

Debbie’s response, absolutely! If you can provide updated information then by all means do so. She is assuming that you have direct contact information for the recruiters you are targeting. Debbie actually suggests that you should update target recruiters and companies quarterly if you can because resume files are purged on a regular basis. She also suggests that you include a caveat statement at the end of all of your marketing documents; something basic such as “This resume is confidential and cannot be shared without my express permission.” It won’t stop everyone from sharing the information, but it may help.

Another caller asked about what to put in your resume. She understood that it was best to include everything you did over the last 15 years. Since she’s only been in her current job two years, and was with her previous company for 18 years, should she include her current job and only the 13 years prior, or should she use a different approach.

Knowing When to Strike

Some people say they make their own luck. But if you don’t believe in luck, then the answer has to be that those “lucky” people understand something the rest of us may not, and that’s when to take advantage of an opportunity when it is presented.

I recently ran across a blog entry by Stuart Cross in the UK which asks the question, “Are You a Red Kite Leader?” Cross explains that a red kite is a type of hawk that circles until it finds its prey and pounces. This kind of opportunistic predator is very successful at catching its dinner, just as opportunistic executives are successful at seizing the next big opportunity that presents itself.

As Cross sees it, there are three kinds of decision-makers:

1.       The Driver. This leader says “yes” to virtually every new opportunity that comes along. He has boundless energy but can tire out his team and, when the big opportunity finally arrives, the organization can be too stretched to exploit it.

2.       The Analyst. This manager wants absolute certainty before taking action and exasperates his team with the constant need for further information and the development and evaluation of more and more options.

3.       The Red Kite. The Red Kite decision-maker understands that nothing is certain in today’s complex world and that he or she cannot consume precious resources chasing every opportunity.

Taking Charge of Your Professional Image, Part 2

If your professional image is a matter of how others perceive you, can you manage that image? You can’t control the color of your skin or what other people’s stereotypical ideas might be, but you can shape their view of you in a number of ways.

In her research on professional image construction, Professor Laura Morgan Roberts of the Harvard Business School noted that professional image is dictated by a number of factors, including which social group you belong to. She also uncovered a number of strategies that help you manage others’ perceptions, and demonstrate your professional competence, character, and commitment.

People manage others impressions through the use of non-verbal behavior, such as appearance and demeanor; using verbal cues such as grammar, diction, rate of speech, etc.; and by demonstration such as job performance. According to Roberts, you can use social identity-based impression management (SIM) to manage stereotypes by strategically aligning yourself with the positive aspects of your social identity. You can use what Roberts terms “positive distinctiveness” to educate others about the positive aspects of your social group. You can also use social recategorization to downplay those negative aspects of your social group. For example, if you are a member of the Millennials born between 1977 and 1994, you are characterized racially diverse, extremely independent, and feeling empowered. You can play up the perceived value of being part of this group, i.e. your understanding of technology, and downplay the negative or non-conformist aspects of your generation by your dress and speech.

Taking Charge of Your Professional Image, Part 1

An essential part of career management is projecting a professional aura; demonstrating to your bosses and co-workers that you are competent, committed, and have integrity. Of course, no matter how sterling your performance, you can’t control the way others perceive you. Or can you?

Laura Morgan Roberts, an assistant professor in the Organizational Behavior unit at the Harvard Business School, recently completed a research study on creating a positive professional image. Her findings will be published in the October issue of the Academy of Management Review, but here’s a snapshot.

The first thing you have to understand is that you don’t control your professional image, others do:

"People are constantly observing your behavior and forming theories about your competence, character, and commitment, which are rapidly disseminated throughout your workplace," she says. "It is only wise to add your voice in framing others' theories about who you are and what you can accomplish."

So when you think of your professional image, you need to think of both your desired professional image and your perceived professional image, i.e. the image you want others to have of you and the image they actually do have. You know what you want people to think about you. Research shows that the most desirable traits are trustworthiness, caring, humility, and capability. What people actually think is another matter. You probably have some idea of what others say about you when you’re out of the room from both direct and indirect feedback. You can have a positive impact on your perceived image by exhibiting positive behavior, but there are other factors you can’t control.

Location, Location, Location

  Your career management strategy should include a strategy to build your net worth as well as optimize your quality of life. Where you live can have a big impact on how much wealth you can accumulate as well as how comfortable you are. A recent article on CFO.com, “Which Cities Rule in Building Net Worth,” offered a synopsis of Salary.com’s recent Salary Value Index, ranking the 69 cities with 250,000 residents or more by cost of living and working, as well as other factors such as diversity of industry, level of unemployment, education level, availability of post-secondary education, and commute times.

You might be surprised that the top five cities on the list are Plano, Texas; Aurora, Colorado; Omaha, Nebraska; and Albuquerque, New Mexico. Each of these cities plays host to a number of Fortune 500 companies. Omaha is headquarters for ConAgra Foods, Union Pacific Corp., Peter Kiewit Sons, Mutual of Omaha Cos., and Berkshire Hathaway. Plano plays host to a variety of companies including Ericsson Inc., Perot Systems, Electronic Data Systems, JC Penney, and Frito-Lay.