The Executive Update

New Year’s Resolutions for Savvy Executives

Having executive networking groups (like the NETSHARE forums) to share ideas and strategies is incredibly revitalizing. I particularly get a lot of insights from The Alliance of Chief Executives, my CEO network group. They help keep me focused and creative.

As we are coming to the end of 2008, our group reviews their goals for the year, and assesses new goals for the year ahead – our new year’s resolutions, if you prefer. Many of these goals are relevant for any manager, and can be applied to job seekers as well.

The following snippets were pooled from past goals of several groups. Consider adopting some of these for your own New Year’s resolutions:

-          Go with your gut.

-          Focus and delegate.

-          Don’t take long-standing clients for granted.

-          Maintain your business relationships.

-          Use principled negotiation.

-          Remember that misalignment of vision creates a slow down.

-          Over communicate to your team.

-          Use the principals of negotiation – offer choices.

-          Educate others about your expertise and what you have to offer.

-          Remember that profitability is more important than gross revenue.

-          Get focused and maintain focus.

-          Stay focused on your customer perspective.

-          Fire early (an especially painful lesson for many managers).

-          Be fallible.

-          Remember it’s easier to stay out of trouble than get out of trouble.

-          The faster life’s pace, the more important it is to slow down.

-          Don’t wait too long to pursue your core beliefs.

-          Live life first.

 

Here’s wishing you a prosperous and peaceful 2009.

Avoiding Facebook Faux Pas

Following our recent Experts Connection session with Jason Alba on “LinkedIn & Facebook Essentials for Executives: Using Both Platforms as Professional Networking Tools,” I started doing some online digging to see what the rest of blogosphere has to say about Facebook for professionals.

Be aware that your employers and prospective employers are monitoring Facebook. Virgin Atlantic recently fired 13 of their workers for making disparaging remarks about the company and its passengers on their Facebook pages. Facebook can be a real asset for your personal brand, if you use it wisely. Here are some tips to keep your Facebook brand squeaky clean:

1.       Watch our tagged photos. Of course, avoid posting embarrassing photos in the first place, but even if your friends insist on posting embarrassing pictures, you can untag them.

2.       Keep comments private. Don’t leave yourself open to an online fight with your boyfriend or someone else where everyone can see it. Use the privacy settings.

3.       If necessary, make your page private. If you have to brag online, share it with your friends. You might even consider creating two Facebook sites, a public branding persona and a private personal Facebook page.

4.       Watch what others are saying. Keep an eye on comments and delete the ones that are offensive or undermine your personal brand.

5.       Check your social network frequently. There’s a lot of activity out there so be sure you know what other people are saying about you online. You can set up a blog alert for yourself on Google, but be proactive and be vigilant.

6.       Don’t post while drunk. It’s just like drunk dialing; you don’t want to post anything you will regret in the morning.

7.       Don’t say anything negative about your boss, your company, your products, your customers… You get the idea. If you can’t say anything nice, probably best not to post it.

8.       Have a professional-looking e-mail address. I’m all for fun, but no one is going to seriously consider a candidate with an e-mail address like StudMuffin321@hotmail.com

9.       Remember your friends. Most people include colleagues, coworkers, bosses, and professional contacts as online friends. Don’t forget they are watching what you say online.

10.   Don’t be afraid to be yourself. Facebook is a good place to show off your interests and personality. You can use Facebook as a tool to help humanize your personal brand. Don’t be afraid to post fun photos, interests, and other things, as long as they don’t get in the way of promoting your personal brand.

Facebook can be a powerful tool, if you know how to use it to your advantage. So you can have fun online, but be sure to use good professional judgment.

Hitting the Right Keywords for Your Personal Brand

I found a new web site for word lovers that could be helpful to those of you who are posting content online to promote your personal brand, or for any writer for that matter. Check out  www.wordle.net.

Worldle.net lets you can either paste content from a file, such as a resume or executive bio, or a web site, such as your web portfolio, to create a word cloud. I created this Wordle.net cloud from this blog. The words that are given more prominence appear more frequently in the text. You might even consider keywords for your personal brand.

The site is fun to play with, and it’s useful too.

‘Tis the Season for Giving

I must admit that I have had trouble getting into the Christmas spirit this year. With all the negative financial news and everyone around me in a blue funk, I just haven’t been able to muster the old holiday cheer. I haven’t even been motivated to get out and stimulate the economy with Christmas shopping. So after taking a hard look at the state of the economy, I decided that this would be the year to give something back, particularly since all the charitable organizations have been especially hard hit.

Instead of giving Christmas gifts this year, I decided to make donations to The Heifer Foundation on behalf of friends and family. If you don’t know The Heifer Foundation, it’s a very worthwhile charity that helps end hunger by offering assistance to local farmers around the world, and international groups have been really hit by the economic slump. If you want to give globally, you might consider any of the worthwhile global charities – Alternative Gifts International, Habitat for Humanity,  or World Vision Gifts – there are endless charities that could use your help.

Of course, we all can provide assistance closer to home, and there are just as many places that could use help in our own backyard. At the last meeting of The Alliance of Chief Executives, my CEO networking group, we were comparing notes on what to do about the holidays this year and how we can help in our own communities. One CEO told the group that his entire company voted not to have a Christmas party this year. Instead, they opted for a Christmas lunch and a bowling party. They then gave a multiple of their combined scores from the bowling tournament to a local food bank.

If you don’t have the means to make a donation, why not volunteer your time? It’s a great way to beat the holiday blues. One member of my CEO group decided to volunteer her time as a bell-ringer for the Salvation Army. The American Red Cross always is looking for volunteers, or consider volunteering at a local food bank.

If you decide to volunteer, consider an activity that you normally wouldn’t do. It’s very therapeutic. One of NETSHARE’s career coaches told me a story about seeing a man in Starbucks knitting a very elaborate sweater. Being a knitter herself, she asked him about the pattern and learned that he was a Jungian therapist who recommended to all his clients to take an hour each day to do something completely different from their daily routing. Create a space outside yourself to give you a fresh perspective and recharge your batteries.

And what better time of year is there to step back and realize that you haven’t got it so bad? There is always someone who is worse off somewhere. Be grateful for the things you do have, such as your health and your family, and share your good fortune with others by volunteering your time and resources. It will put you in a terrific frame of mind for the new year.

We Know You’re Upset – Don’t Take It Out on the Recruiter

The current state of the economy has everyone upset. Every day there are new announcements of layoffs and corporations going bankrupt. It seems that no job is safe and there is a new sense of desperation in the marketplace. However, even if you are facing financial ruin, taking it out on a recruiter is professional suicide.

There was a recent ABC news story about an emerging trend among job candidates who are pleading with recruiters for a job, or getting angry in a screening call, or even bursting into tears. No matter how desperate your situation, throwing a tantrum will not achieve your goals. Rather, it will shut down the interview right away and remove you from the running, and probably from the recruiter’s database. Remember the recruiter does not work for you, but works for the hiring company.

Here is a list of six things you should NEVER do when talking to a recruiter:

1. Don’t share too much. Even if you keep your emotions in check and can hide your desperation, watch for other pitfalls, like telling the recruiter your last boss was crazy or that you burned out on your last job. If you wouldn’t say it in an interview, don’t say it in a screening call.
2. Don’t say you’ll take anything. No recruiter wants to hear that. It just points out how desperate you are, and that you may start looking for greener pastures when things get better. It also makes it harder to sell your credentials for the open position. Be focused and be specific about the kind of position you are after.
3. Don’t send your brother-in-law. This would seem like a no-brainer, but apparently there still are people who send their brother, mother, sister to solicit job openings.
4. Don’t be a diva. Don’t play hard to get or tell a recruiter you have something more important to do. And don’t balk at a phone screening or preliminary contact.
5. Don’t be a stalker. A common complaint heard about recruiters is they don’t return calls fast enough. Considering the number of applicants for each job, that’s understandable. Don’t repeatedly call recruiters looking for updates, and certainly don’t call 10 times a day and hang up when you get voice mail. Everyone has caller ID these days.
6. Don’t burn your bridges. When you don’t land the interview, avoid the temptation to send a scathing e-mail to the recruiter, or leave the phone lines sizzling with four-letter epithets in a voice mail. Accept the decision gracefully and be professional. You may need that recruiter again for a future interview.

Remember that working with a recruiter is just like working with any hiring manager. You have to sell yourself in the same way, and you have to work with that recruiter to help he or she be successful. Put aside your frustration and your anger and help the recruiter help you. You’ll get much farther that way.

In Other Words, “You’re Fired!”

It’s amazing how corporations go to Orwellian lengths to obscure those two simple words – “you’re fired!” There’s clearly more than one way to lay off your staff. If you have ever been laid off/made redundant/given the old heave ho (you know what I mean), then these corporate euphemisms, complements of BusinessWeek, will amuse you. They all add up to the same thing – You’re fired!

·         "Synergy-related headcount adjustment goal"

·         "Action to simplify our organization"

·         "De-verticalization"

·         "Offboarding"

·          "Rationalizing"

·         "Surplussing"

·         "Result of a strategic review of strategies"

·         "RIF-ing"

·         "Chao youyu" (from Hong Kong: it means to have one's squid cooked)

 

Well, a skunk by any other name still stinks! Enjoy your holidays.

“Pleased to Meet You, How Can I Help?”

Recently we talked about common questions we receive. We also talked about why you need to make a personal connection to get hired. A resume can be your calling card in an interview or an exploratory meeting, but a piece of paper won’t open doors for you. Only people can do that, so you need to build your personal network.

Well here’s another common question we get all the time: “What’s the best way to build my network?”

There are basically two types of professional networking. The first is overt, where you go barging into online forums shouting, “I’m here, hire me!,” or where you show up at a trade show cocktail party carrying a stack of resumes. Not only does this approach lack subtlety but it doesn’t work. Going to a networking meeting and saying, “Hey, gotta job?” is not the way to network; it’s not like feeding a nickel into a gumball machine and waiting for a job lead to fall out. You have to do your research and cultivate the right contacts.

The second type of networking is more elegant, and more effective. Try just hanging out in the right places, either online or at industry events. Get to know the industry insiders and become one of the gang yourself. And don’t want to wait to build your connections until you really need them, start now!

Whatever the Question, Networking Is Usually the Answer

We always request advance questions for our Experts Connections sessions, and no matter what the topic of our teleseminar, the same questions seem to keep coming up. Before our most recent teleseminar with Jason Alba on how to leverage LinkedIn and Facebook, we received two queries (unrelated to the topic) which seem to come up regularly:

-          How can I be honest about my educational background (I never got a college degree or finished an MBA) and still be perceived as a viable job candidate?

-          I am over 60 and very successful, but can’t seem to get any traction with interviews. How do you deal with ageism in the job search process?

When I look into my Magic 8 Ball I see that the answer to both these questions (and many others we receive every month) is exactly the same – NETWORKING!

The way to get past these objections is to establish a rapport with the interviewer. Let’s face it, the truth is that sending resumes to people who don’t know you is cold-calling. If someone actually looks at your resume, they will be looking for more reasons to exclude you than include you in the mix of candidates. They will be looking for telltales like age (when did you graduate?), education (did you graduate or do you have that all-important MBA?), experience (either too much or too little), depth of expertise (e.g. too much sales, not enough marketing), etc. No matter what criteria they are using, they are looking to eliminate candidates.

Ask the Coach: Finding the Right Coach to Guide You

Every week, NETSHARE hosts Ask the Coach, a phone-in coaching session with leading career management experts. Here is an excerpt from a recent session with a new addition to our coaching team, Randy Block.

Everyone needs help once in a while. In this week’s Ask the Coach call, Randy Block tackled the question of how to find the right resources to help you? How do you find a good career coach?

Randy’s advice – use your network. Ask your friends and colleagues who they respect. Also remember that the rule is “nothing is guaranteed” because job placement is too subjective. If a career coach says he or she can deliver a resume guaranteed to land you a job, run, don’t walk in the opposite direction.

There are many types of career coaches so it’s important that you have an idea where you need coaching. Do you need help with resumes and documents, interview techniques, or other areas? Some like to use personal evaluation tools, like Birkman testing or Myers Briggs. When evaluating coaches, check them out online to determine where they specialize. NETSHARE is an ideal resource to match you with a career coaches. NETSHARE has been cultivating relationships with the best career coaches since 1991, and maintains a database of coaching resources, including their areas of expertise to make it easier to match the right coach to your background. NETSHARE members can always contact Sabrina, the director of member services, and she can help match them to the right career coach.

What can a coach do for you? A good coach can help you define your value and reach your goals. Everyone needs help in different areas, so a good coach will tailor the program to your personal needs. They can help you change behavior that might be holding you back and provide guidance, but you still have to do the work.

When choosing a coach, talk to more than one expert. Chemistry is important. Also find out if they have expertise in your area. A good coach will refer a candidate to another coach who may be a better fit. How you get value from a coaching relationship is up to you. If you don’t understand what they are going to do for you or you don’t need what they are offering, don’t hire them.

Understanding Netiquette: Looking for Mister Goodjob

If you have been reading this blog on a regular basis, you know that we are BIG proponents of building your personal network using tools like LinkedIn and Facebook. In fact, this week we are hosting an Experts Connection teleseminar with Jason Alba entitled, “LinkedIn & Facebook Essentials for Executives: Using Both Platforms as Professional Networking Tools.”

However, it never ceases to amaze me how awkward people are online. I have joined a number of LinkedIn forums over the years, and so many seem to be populated with desperate souls pleading, “I’m available for networking – please link to me,” or “experienced … seeking new work in New York market. Please help.” I imagine these poor souls standing on a city street corner, laptop in hand with a sign saying, “Will network for food.”

You can’t approach social networking like a singles bar, just showing up and asking “Hey, gotta job?” and just hope you get lucky. As with everything in life, you have to invest appropriately in your personal network to get it to pay off. You have to use the appropriate degree of finesse and subtlety. Offer to help others in your network; build your contacts and establish trust. When the time comes, you can tap your growing list of LinkedIn connections to ask about contacts in a target company or see if someone can direct you to the right hiring manager at a specific target employer. Don’t ask for a job, offer assistance instead. How can you help? Does a contact need advice, direction, a referral?

What many people don’t grasp is that social networking is more about “hanging out” online and establishing a trust and rapport than it is blatantly asking for work. If you can learn the subtle dynamics of social networking, the payoff will be there when you need them in abundance.

This is part of the reason you want to start building your network early and often. Don’t wait until you are unemployed, on the virtual street corner with your laptop in hand. Start building your network or resources today, before you need them. Be useful to them. Establish a rapport. So when the time comes they will be there to catch you when you need a safety net.