The Executive Update

The Art of the Blog Comment and Building Your Digital Footprint

We spend a lot of editorial space in this blog talking about promoting your personal brand by building your digital footprint. The more breadcrumbs you can scatter across the web that point back to your personal branding documents – your blog, LinkedIn profile, Facebook page, online CV, or whatever you are using to promote your brand – the more likely you will be found. One of the best strategies is commenting on blogs about topics related to your expertise. If you can add to the conversation by commenting, you increase your digital footprint.

Of course, blog commenting can be time consuming. As you are surfing the web you could run across a blog entry on any topic that is interesting, insightful, and already well-commented. What can you add to the conversation? You can add your two cents, or you can spread the word. When you lack inspiration, here are some ideas as to how to contribute to the comment conversation without overtaxing yourself (with thanks to Keisha Easley who posted the original article on Social Media Today):

1. Make a note and come back later. If you have nothing to say in the moment, bookmark the blog site and think about it so you can come back later. When inspiration strikes, you can come back and post your insights.
2. When in doubt, tweet it (or Facebook it, or post it to LinkedIn). One of the great things about using social media sites is they thrive on the exchange of ideas, even when those ideas aren’t your own. You can use interesting blog entries to post to your Twitter stream, Facebook page, or to your LinkedIn contacts and groups. If the content is related to your personal brand it has potential value to your followers.
3. Comment on the comments. Blogs are part of the larger online conversation, and comments feed the conversation, so commenting on the commentary just adds more insight. Read what others have to say and feel free to expound or disagree. However, repeating what someone else says in different words doesn’t add much to the conversation. It’s better to provide a contrary or expert viewpoint to demonstrate your own expertise.
4. Poke around the blog. If you run across an interesting entry but have nothing to say, chances are there are similar blog posts at the same location that might inspire something. Explore a little and see if you find another blog post that promotes a reaction.
5. Been there, done that. Providing personal experience or an anecdote is a good way to add to the conversation and promote your brand. It helps if you have some spicy details or something unusual to share to make it memorable.
6. Try humor. One way to be memorable is to be funny. It’s okay to make a fool out of yourself if you have something clever to add. Just don’t force it and don’t be off-color or offensive.
7. Great post! Okay, you can say that but it won’t add to the conversation and you may be perceived as a spammer. Better to demonstrate that you were paying attention and add to the conversation – “I really liked what you had to say about…”

So step up and offer an opinion. You have nothing to lose and everything to gain when it comes to building your digital footprint.

It's Making Connections that Really Matters

I have been helping executives with job search and career management for 20 years, and what strikes me about career management is that, even though the technology changes, people don’t. With the explosion of monster job boards and million-member social networks that connect like-minded professionals, the thing that still helps professionals land quality jobs and advance their careers is meeting other people.

We built NETSHARE by working with companies and recruiters to help them find the best available talent. I am sure some members will recall the days when we called every member of the NETSHARE network to gather job leads for publication. As time went on, we received less “leads” from members and more “postings” from recruiters and companies but our focus continued to be on connecting the network of people together, rather than posting jobs.

I still see so many executive job seekers stuck using 20^th century tactics. They are still following the job listings, writing cover letters, and reaching out to recruiters, begging for a chance. With the amount of qualified talent out there looking for a new opportunity, these old-style tactics just don’t work.

I received a note today from one of my NETSHARE contacts with a request from an in-house recruiter looking for a senior manager for a Fortune 1000 technology company. Apparently the recruiter had uncovered my contact’s profile using a keyword search and was reaching out to see if he knew anyone. Now this could turn into a direct job lead for my contact, or it could turn into a golden opportunity for someone else in his network.

This is the new trend. Recruiters and hiring managers don’t have to use job listings any longer, except when they need to conform to the rules of EEO compliance. They can search LinkedIn, eCademy, Spoke, Facebook, and dozens of other social networking sites looking for experts with the right credentials, and then asking those contacts for help with their current search. They don’t need to sift through a mountain of resumes. All they need to use is a few keywords that match their job criteria to narrow the field from an ever-growing universe of professionals who have a robust online brand. That’s why you need to be connected, so you can be found and get the referrals that will be of real value to you.

When it comes to job search in the 21^st century, it is better to be sought after than to look for new opportunities. You need to connect with other professionals who are in the right place with the right resources to lend a hand in your search, either with another referral or some new ideas. That’s how you get ahead, through your contacts.

And it’s the quality of the contacts that really matter. You need to have a handful of networking resources you can count on for advice or a referral, rather than trying to mine the hundreds of casual acquaintances you have on Facebook. You could be a LION on LinkedIn with more than 500 connections, but unless you can associate a specific qualification, expertise, or need with each connection, then they are of little value. It all becomes a numbers game unless you understand how to work with your network of connections to help one another get ahead.

Ask the Coach: Summertime is Time to Relax and Keep Networking

Every week, NETSHARE hosts Ask the Coach, a phone-in coaching session with leading career management experts. Here is an excerpt from this week’s session with Barbara Safani, owner of Career Solvers based in New York City.

The topic of this week’s Ask the Coach call was summer vacation and how to stay engaged with your job search while you also take some down time. Remember that your family is an important component of your job search; they are the core of your support network, so you need to treat them well and spending time with your family during the summer is one way to do it. But that doesn’t mean you have to squander your free time. Multitask!

Vacations are a great time to expand your network through conversations with others in a relaxing atmosphere. The pressure is off, which makes it easier to find things you have in common with others that could lead to career opportunities. Even if you are taking a “staycation,” keep networking. Once the ice is broken and a relationship has been started, it’s much easier to explain what you do and what you love to do; where your passions lie. Be sure to let the other party talk and learn as well. Remember that they are being complimented when you indicate that they are worth listening to as well.

You can build on these conversations so you are not only better known, but have a larger network to build on. Enlist more recruits to your fan club. When these new summer contacts go back to their routine, they will remember you and pass your name along. Also be sure to reach out to them when the summer is over and find out how life is going for them, and what future plans they may have that match your interests. Ask about mutual contacts and see if you can set up a time to talk. Remember you want to talk; you don’t want to ask for a job.

Be sure you plan how to stay on their radar when vacations are over and decisions are ready to be made. That’s when you want to have your name to be remembered.

You might consider partnering with someone who is in a similar situation, and who understands your problems and stresses. Consider them your accountability partner who can help you stay on track. And be sure you partner with someone who will be honest and supportive.

Cultivating Likeability

We spend a lot of time talking about networking and its value for your career. There are degrees of networking as well. What the Facebook/LinkedIn/Twitter phenomenon has taught us is that you can connect with any number of people with similar interests and concerns, but how many of those connects can you count as contacts in the true sense of the word? How many of those 500+ LinkedIn connections can you call for advice or to exchange ideas? That’s what is missing in the world of social networking.

And part of the challenge of effective networking is promoting likeability. For someone to offer to help you or even to listen to what you have to say, they have to have enough regard for you to give you the time of day. In short, they have to like you. The same is very true in job search – you will never hire someone you don’t like. To quote from a recent article by Denise Martin in Consulting Magazine explores the fact that, in order to do business, you have to like the other party:

“After all, the very continuation of the species depends on us being social with each other. We consider the loner, the misfit, and the socially inept as pariahs and avoid them where possible. We simply prefer to say ‘yes’ to people that we like. For proof positive, look at the success of Tupperware parties, office charity requests for their kids’ activities, attendance at benefit auctions, etc….

“That trusting environment is embodied in the emotion of liking someone. It is critical in the art of doing business. You will never, repeat never, do business with someone you don’t trust. Also true is a corollary fact: you will never trust someone that you don’t like.”

So when networking or job hunting, you have to promote likeability. No matter how smart you are, how qualified you are, or how good your ideas are, you will never connect with another person unless you can get them to like you at some level.

So how do you promote likeability? There are some simple techniques anyone can use:

1. Smile – As the saying goes, let a smile be your umbrella. If you smile, not matter what your real mood, will promote openness and likeability. This doesn’t mean you have to paste a perpetual grin on your face, but be prepared with a social smile. Use a smile when you are on the phone as well – if you smile it will lighten your tone of voice.
2. Find common ground – Find something you can come together on to forge a connection, even if it’s only the weather. Start with small talk to find something you can agree upon and have in common to make a connection.
3. Be complementary – Complement the other party’s tie, or dress, or hair, but find something positive to say so you can praise the other person and demonstrate that you are paying attention to them.
4. Establish camaraderie – Use “we” language to imply you are of the same tribe and interest. “We” is the pronoun of teams and by using it you are saying we are on the same team.
5. Build on the familiar – If you are from the same region, or have common friends, or have known each other for some time, use it! People gravitate toward the familiar and it promotes instant likeability.
6. Name dropping – Use the other person’s name, often. Work it into conversation in a natural way, because people like to hear their name; it promotes familiarity.
7. Get them to do you a favor – We are not talking about a huge thing but find an area where the other party can perform a small service, whether it’s giving you the name of a movie or sharing something small. The act of providing a service creates a connection.

In business, or any type of networking for that matter, likeability has to come before trust. If they don’t like you they can’t trust you, and if they can’t trust you, they will never help or hire you.

Are You A Position or Pivotal Player?

It’s baseball season, and for the record, I am not crazy about sports analogies, but I was struck by the wisdom of this recent blog post from Auren Huffman, CEO of Rapleaf, about Position Players Versus All-Around Athletes. As Huffman writes:

“Hiring managers face a dilemma similar to coaches: Should you hire someone who's really good at one particular thing - or someone who is more of an all-around player?”

Conventional wisdom from our career coaches indicates that you need to address a prospective employer’s immediate point of pain. Their point is that to get the right attention from the hiring manager, you either have to be able to save the company money, make the company money, or address some other immediate need. That would make you a position player in Huffman’s view.

But what about the company that has multiple points of pain and has limited hiring capacity. Should you try to sell yourself on your greatest strengths, or show that you have multiple talents that can be of value as the company grows?

Huffman, who among other things is an angel investor, notes that whether you are looking to hire a position player or an all-around athlete depends on where you are in the evolution of your team. If you are in “scaling mode” and have a three-year plan, then you know where the holes are in your lineup and looking for top performers with the specific expertise you need makes sense. He uses the example of an ad agency looking for a solid player in Web marketing. Like recruiting a catcher or a place kicker, it’s a highly specialized role and an expert won’t come cheap, but it will help with the firm’s growth strategy.

However, what if your company is a startup or in transition? Then you are in “change mode” which means you need pivotal players who can roll with the changes. If you are a tech startup, for example, you may find yourself targeting different markets. What starts out as an ideal software application for financial services may find a strong role in pharmaceuticals, so hiring a sales executive with a financial services Rolodex may not help your business grow when you need to. This is when hiring all-around athletes makes more sense. As Huffman puts it:

“While hiring position players will significantly increase the chance of success for your current model, it gives you little room to pivot. Any significant change in your business model might force you to swap out your team.”

So what does this mean for you as an executive job seeker? It means you have more homework to do. You need to assess where your target company is in their own development. Are they a more mature company with a game plan that requires your specialized expertise? Or are they in transition, which means you can bring multiple skills to the table to help the company grow?

The other question you need to ask yourself is do you work better as a position player or a pivotal player? Can you command the job and salary you want with niche expertise that really hits the sweet spot of a company with a well-thought-out growth strategy? Or do you prefer the challenge of being more of a generalist, and adapting your skills to meet the changing needs of the company? Either way, you need to make sure that your personal brand and your executive marketing documents highlight your expertise, and you approach the right kind of company that is either building their squad from scratch or looking for the expertise to extend their long game.

Are You Ready to Be An Entrepreneur?

As executives age, they start looking at alternative career strategies, including consulting or opening their own business. We have written in the past about consulting and what it takes to build a successful consulting practice. But what if you are ready to take on something more permanent and ambitious? Are you ready to start your own business? It’s tougher than being unemployed, but you might be ready for a new challenge, if you can go into a new venture with your eyes wide open.

I recently found some interesting insights from a guest post by Carol Roth on the Business Pundit on what you need to consider before you embark on becoming your own boss and launching your fledgling business. Here are six things to think about before you get started:

1. Know why you are starting a business. Don’t get caught up in the wrong motivation to start your business. Don’t pursue the latest shiny technology, or decide to start your own company because you can do a better job than your idiot boss. Consider your customers and what problem you can solve for them? Is the solution sustainable as a business model? Also ask yourself if you are willing to work long hours and do what it takes to succeed. Do you have the right attitude? Remember that 90 percent of new businesses fold within five years.

2. Find the right people to help you. You can’t work in a vacuum, no matter what your business. You need to deal with investors, suppliers, accountants, lawyers, and, of course, customers. Find the right resources to help you get started.

3. Be prepared. Think about the skills you need to run the business, not just succeed at your profession. Do you know how to handle bookkeeping, manage cash flow, deal with suppliers, and handle sales and marketing? Be sure to inventory those skills you need in advance and either acquire them or be prepared to fill in the gaps in some other fashion.

4. How are your cash reserves? You need to be honest with yourself about the money you will need. Do you have money to invest? Do you need money from investors? Can you handle the cash once you acquire it? What are you going to live on while you get your business going? These questions need to be addressed before you get started.

5. Consider the competitive landscape. How tough is your market? Are you entering a saturated market with a “me too” business that will make it harder to compete? Are others doing what you want to do? Are they succeeding or can you see similar businesses dropping like flies? You need to understand what will make you unique in your market area

6. Can you scale your business? One of the biggest mistakes entrepreneurs make is they build a business around their own know-how and expertise. That makes it difficult to scale the business. If you can train others and transfer your expertise to expand your business, you will have a better chance for success.

So before you decide to start your own business, consider if you really have what it takes to make a go of it. If you want to get your feet wet, try consulting or working for similar companies and study their challenges and successes before venturing out on your own.

Ask the Coach: “Let’s Change Partners and Dance…” – Embracing the Portfolio Career

Every week, NETSHARE hosts Ask the Coach, a phone-in coaching session with leading career management experts. Here is an excerpt from this week’s session with career transition coach and career management consultant Randy Block.

This week, career transition coach Randy Block led the call and he had some interesting insight for those who joined us:

“Changing partners might be your best move in the job search dance.”

Traditionally, career nirvana was to land a job with a company and stay there. You would work your way up the ladder and retire with a nice pension and benefits. Thanks to the economic upheaval we have just experienced this idyllic picture will seem like something made up for a movie or the plot of a novel. What was once almost guaranteed is now harder and harder to find. In fact, hiring managers sometimes look on a stable career path with suspicion; What's wrong with this person they stayed in one place so long? Didn’t he or she have any job offers? Is there no desire to expand their horizons?

Older workers who have been "indoctrinated" in this expectation need to realize that the "dream" does not exist for many anymore. They must adapt, or die.

More and more boomers are finding it difficult to make the cut when it comes to hiring. As Randy points out, most Gen Xers don't want their father working for them. Most boomers are not used to taking orders from their kids. It can be a very uncomfortable working situation. Many of today’s Gen X hiring managers see boomers as lacking energy, lacking technical skills, lacking social media skills, and lacking an understanding of current consumers and their needs.

To overcome these obstacles, boomers must show that they are none of the above. They must prove they are on the cutting edge of change and technology. Yes, they know what SEO and SEM mean. They can tweet and blog with the best of them. They have a strong web presence and a dynamic digital footprint. A quick Google search of their name will prove their value, and show that they are willing to share this value in discussion groups, industry conferences, and with thought leaders.

Instead of working towards the full-time job with the large company as a career strategy for a long run, boomers need to change partners. They need to look to a Portfolio Career. This will provide them with many challenges - each a separate chapter, a separate project. By being project-based you make yourself appear to be more valuable and more ready to be hired by the companies you are interested in. Where they can't see hiring you for a full-time position, they can see hiring you to fix the problem at hand. Once that problem is fixed, you have proven your worth in spades. The company has seen how you "fit" into its culture. They have seen that you are up on the industry and that you can work with their employees. They might just decide to take the leap and offer you a full-time position.

Now it's your turn to decide if you like this partner enough to stay or look for another partner who fits your style and needs better. You can start a new chapter with a new challenge – it’s always a new dance.

It’s Time to Take Charge of Your Time Management

One of the bigger challenges I hear about from NETSHARE members is the amount of time it requires to really manage your career. You have to find the time to write and rewrite your marketing documents; you need time to network; you need time to build out your online brand footprint. If you are working full time and looking for a better career opportunity, then time is really at a premium. How can you manage your time to work everything you need to accomplish into your day?

I guess the real answer is, you can’t, so you have to find the best way to manage your time to get the most out of your day for yourself. Don’t stack the “to do” list in a way that means inevitable failure. Instead, prioritize what you need to do, do what you can, and let the rest go.

This was driven home to me by a recent post on BNET, “The Biggest Time Saving Tip of All,” by Laura Vanderkam, author of 168 Hours (which are the number of hours in a week). Vanderkam states the obvious, although most of us forget this:

“Time will pass. It will be filled with something. You have to sleep and eat. But in our free and prosperous society, what else transpires during that time will be a choice. It will be a result of a choice you make during that week, or the result of a choice you made at some point in your life and are executing on now.”

So you can try to plan every minute of every day, but inevitably, the plan will go awry. So does that mean you have failed? Not at all. It just means that you have chosen to fill your time with other tasks that may, or may not, mean more to you.

As Vanderkam notes, you can’t “find” more hours in the day, and if you did, what would that accomplish? Instead, you need to “start by filling your 168 hours with the things that matter to you and those you care about — those high-impact activities that nurture your career, nurture your family, and nurture yourself — and spend as few of your 168 hours as possible on anything else.”

Rather than worrying about “busyness,” make the most of the time available to you and fill the hours with things that are important. You may have to negotiate more time with your family, or change jobs or the way you do your job to reprioritize your time, but you get to choose how you use your time, and that’s the secret. As Vanderkam says, “there’s little point in trying to save minutes when you’re wasting hours.” Instead, build the life you want in the time you have available.

The Consulting Conundrum: Is Consulting the Right Alternative

Many of the senior executives we talk to at NETSHARE have been consultants at one time or another. (Sometimes I think of Janis Joplin and hum “freelance is another word for nothing left to lose…” in my head.) Consulting is a necessary evil for many between positions, and a number of executives find they can do quite well at consulting, if they understand the rules. According to Alan Weiss, president of the Summit Consulting Group:

“There are about 400,000 people in the U.S. calling themselves consultants. My estimate is that only half of them are actually working as consultants. Most enter the profession as a second career or after they're retired.”

There was an interesting article posted to BusinessWeek.com by Smart Answers columnist Karen Klein, “Why Self-Employed Consultants Fail,” which offers some interesting tips for those considering consulting. If you are thinking about consulting, remember the following:

1. Consulting is a marketing business. Being smart or having a great service is not enough. Start with a great marketing approach, spread the word, and be patient while you start to get results.
2. Billable hours won’t make you rich. You need to bill on value, not time. Time is finite and you can’t scale it. Billing should be based on how fast you can solve the client’s problem and what that solution is worth.
3. The problem with most consultants is they lack the self-esteem to bill what they are worth, and they tend to deal with people not authorized to write the check. Poor self-esteem rises when you are self-employed because you don’t have bosses to hide behind, and friends and spouses often look at consulting as a road to failure rather than real work.
4. You can provide true value by building intellectual property. You need to become a thought-leader in a specific niche that your client base wants to tap.
5. Bill on value. Create metrics and milestones that demonstrate that you are getting paid for results, e.g., if you can show a company how to save $1 million or improve their market position by $2.5 million, that’s worth $100,000 or $250,000 for the company.
6. Deal with the decision-makers and get them to come to you. The best approach is to become an expert, ideally with a published book or high visibility through social media and other mechanisms. If you become a known expert then corporate decision-makers will come looking for you and you can name your own price.
7. The best clients are companies that need “remedial help” – they are already strong in their market and have money to spend. Know your strengths, and remember that lousy prospects make terrible clients, so don’t fall in the trap of taking them on just because they have money. Bad clients don’t help you build your brand.

Ask the Coach: The Serendipity of Networking

Every week, NETSHARE hosts Ask the Coach, a phone-in coaching session with leading career management experts. Here is an excerpt from this week’s session with Barbara Safani, owner of Career Solvers based in New York City

One of the things that job seekers come to NETSHARE for is networking. After all, that is the premise of NETSHARE and where we took our name; to network and share information to help one another. Yet networking remains one of the most misunderstood concepts. When you network with others it is for mutual interest, and information exchange, and benefit. It’s not so you can get what you need from the other guy. Networking continues to be challenging for almost everyone, from the graduating student to the most seasoned CEO. Which brings us to serendipity.

As Barbara noted in this week’s Ask the Coach call, serendipity is driven by accident – you make discoveries that are important or of significant value to you without planning them. Serendipity plays a significant role in networking because everyone has something to contribute, and until you connect in whatever fashion presents itself, you will never know how that contact can add to your competitive intelligence. You never know who will be in a position to change your path or help you in some significant way. (I always remember the grocery clerk who made an introduction for a customer that landed him a high-paying executive job.)

So when you start to network, remember that making connections, although very important, is just the start. You want to make quality connections, but quantity of connections also is a factor. Once you make contact, don’t expect every connection to produce the results you want. And don’t assume that just because someone seems to be a “small fish” they are not in a position to introduce you to people you need to talk to – hiring managers, chief executives, board members, etc. Connections come in all shapes and sizes, from the Rotary club and your daughter’s soccer league.

Serendipity plans an important role in many of your connections. You just need to remain open to the possibilities. Be engaged, help others to the best of your ability, and leave yourself open to receiving assistance in return. Be genuine and you will be remembered and rewarded. You never know who might be able to help you in your career quest and when serendipity might play a part.