The Executive Update

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.

Ask the Coach: How Strong is Your Weakest Link?

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 Nicola James, Managing Partner of Thomas Brooke International.

Networking is extremely valuable when you are looking for a job, and it can be incredibly time-consuming as well. One of the questions that was raised this week on the Ask the Coach call was how weak is a weak link in your network?

Nicola, our career coach expert for this week, answered this question with the same response that most questions related to hiring and career management get, “it depends.” Networking can be a very messy and chaotic business. It can be tedious and slow, or full of activity. But to extract the value from networking, you need to stay focused on your goal. And as your goals evolve, the value of your contacts morphs over time. Those contacts that seemed to be a very weak link six months ago may be a valuable resource today.

So think about your goals and who is an influential contact now? Can that contact help you or drop your name in the right place? If you have an existing relationship with that person, you can easily tap them as a valuable resource when you need them.

And don’t underestimate the power of networking. There are stories from NETSHARE members that demonstrate you never know where you will find assistance. Consider the executive looking for a job who struck up a conversation with his mail carrier, who in turn mentioned the executive to a business owner on his route. After a few meetings, the executive now works for the business. Or what about the executive who struck up a conversation with a grocery bagger? It seems the bagger was related to the CEO of a large company, and the bagger helped make the connection so that executive now works for the CEO.

So how strong is the weakest link in your network? As they say, it depends. But don’t discount any of your connections. You never know who may open the door to your next career opportunity.

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.

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.

What Makes a Good Boss? Google Has Done the Analytics

I recently saw an interesting blog post at North of Neutral, an executive coaching firm based in New York, where Coach Dr. Carolyn Mathews cites a New York Times article about “Google’s Quest to Build a Better Boss.” The article describes an initiative Google launched in 2009 code-named Project Oxygen to determine what makes a good boss.

After poring over performance reviews, employee interviews, feedback surveys, and other materials, Google identified eight ways to improve staff management. What Google recognized is that the three key reasons people leave their jobs: a) because they don’t agree with the company mission, b) they have no respect for their coworkers, or c) they have a terrible boss. Of these three, having a bad boss was the biggest variable, and the element over which they could implement the greatest control. And what Carolyn Mathews notes is that the top three of those eight positive traits are what you want to look for in a great boss and a great mentor:

“What employees valued most were even-keeled bosses who made time for one-on-one meetings, who helped people puzzle through problems by asking questions, not dictating answers, and who took an interest in employees’ lives and careers.”

1. Be a good coach. This means providing positive feedback and balancing negative criticism with positive reinforcement. According to Mathews, the best P/N ration to balance positive to negative comments should be around 2.9-to-1 to elicit optimal workplace performance. And being a good coach means having regular one-on-one meetings with staffers where you identify solutions to problems based on the employee’s specific strengths and talents.
2. Empower your team. One of the most common complaints about bad bosses is micromanaging. If you can boost creative thinking with positive feedback (as noted in promoting a healthy P/N ratio above), then it minimizes micromanaging, enabling team members to use their own initiative and approach their boss for advice when needed. Mathews cites the concept of “flow” where you need to establish clear goals, balance the perceived challenge and the perceived ability so you are giving stretch assignments that can be solved, and provide clear and immediate feedback. That’s how you give your staff leadership without micromanaging.
3. Show interest in team members’ success and their well-being. Good management requires empathy. You want to get to know your employees and what makes them tick, both on the job and outside the office. You also want to make sure that you nurture newcomers and make them feel welcome to help ease transition. People quit their jobs because they don’t feel appreciated, not just as employees but as human beings. Work takes up a lot of time and energy, which is why people need to feel their work is connected to the rest of their personal life, and that connection needs to be acknowledged and even celebrated.

Check out the article. The other five of those key management traits may be common sense, but they are strong indicators of what makes a good manager. As you are looking for your next career opportunity, keep these indicators in mind. They will provide a good litmus test as to whether your next boss is a good manager or not.

Rethinking Retirement – Time to Give Older Workers New Options

Ageism is a topic we talk about a lot, largely because NETSHARE and Executive Update are aimed at senior executives; those professionals who have earned their credentials and are senior managers because of their experience. A common problem our members experience is they are considered too old for the job. This is a particular issue for senior executives who have to report to younger bosses – no one wants their mom or dad to work for them.

I was gratified to see an industry expert say that by forcing older executives out of the workforce, we are throwing away a valuable resource. In a recent article in CNN Money by Fortune Managing Editor Dan Roth, he quoted Hans-Paul Bürkner, CEO of Boston Consulting Group (BCG), speaking at the World Economic Forum Davos in 2010:

"We have to give people a chance in their 60s and early 70s to continue to work," he said. "We have to have different opportunities for them to expand their talents and to make the best use of their talents." As populations age in places like Europe and Japan -- a country that boasts the highest percentage of elderly in the world -- society turns top heavy, with young workers supporting the masses of retirees. Of course, economists have been warning of this for decades. Now Bürkner, who is 58, says it's time for companies to take it upon themselves to craft a solution -- and to do so for their own self interest.

According to Bürkner, when companies are hard-pressed to create new jobs, it seems foolish to phase out older employees with valuable experience and insights to retirement or to make way for younger employees. BCG studies this closely calling it “demographic risk management,” i.e. identifying holes that can open up in employee staffing in the coming months and developing strategies to fill those holes. He argues that when aging workers leave, they take with them valuable information that cannot be replaced, partly because today’s schools are not preparing students for those jobs that are being cut. As part of demographic risk management, you have to understand how staffing decisions could create gaps in corporate knowledge.

Bürkner has an interesting suggestion. Don’t force older workers to retire, but provide a “gliding path” to retirement. Instead of letting older workers go or forcing them to retire to make way for younger workers, why not let them migrate into training roles? Instead of forcing them out of work, why not adjust their hours to allow them to still contribute to the company and transfer their knowledge? As Bürkner says, Rather than saying this is the path you can go -- you are in a box and the box moves this way -- you need different paths."

Of course, this kind of shift requires a whole new way of thinking, not just on the part of management but also for the workforce. We need to change our thinking about retirement, either looking at retirement as the brass ring at the end of a life of toil, or looking at forced retirement as a penalty when you still have a lot to offer. The real objective should be giving everyone a chance to contribute in the manner they wish. It’s a matter of making sure that workers have the right role for their skills and desires, rather than forcing out older workers in favor of a new batch. There needs to be room for all.

This kind of sea change won’t happen overnight, but it would address a number of problems, including the ongoing need for companies to hire experienced talent, and the challenges facing retirees as their savings dwindle in an economic slump. Let’s stop putting the most experienced workers on the bench and instead, keep them in the game so we all come out winners.

12 Tips to Help You Make A Better First Impression

We talk a lot about personal branding and the need to have solid marketing documents that articulate your true value. However, if you can’t make a strong personal connection, it will be that much harder to demonstrate that you have the skills needed for the job. Making a great first impression is half the battle in impressing a hiring manager. Here are 12 tips to help you make a solid first impression, compliments of Alyson Kruger at Business Insider:

1. Dress to impress. Studies reveal that first impressions are formed within the first 17 seconds of a meeting, and 55 percent of that opinion is appearance. How does this affect your strategy for attire? Dress conservatively, even if the dress code for the workplace is casual or “funky.” Avoid loud accessories, hair styles, shoes, or anything that would take attention away from your skills. Also dress to show that you respect for the interviewee and the company.
2. Think before you speak. Seven percent of what we think of others is based on what they say. Think about how you want to come across, whether it’s humble, aggressive, optimistic, innovative, then make a list of words to convey that impression. Even if you don’t use those words it will help you prepare.
3. Watch your tone of voice. Thirty-eight percent of a person’s first impression is taken from tone of voice. Consider how you sound to others. Do you sound calm, enthusiastic, confident, humble, self-assured. Practice the way you want to be perceived.
4. Adjust your body language. Ninety-three percent of people’s judgments are based on non-verbal cues. A firm handshake, good posture, a smile, and eye contact will help reinforce a good first impression. Avoid gestures like crossing your arms or sitting too casually which may convey that you are bored or don’t care. Be aware of your physical attitude.
5. Use their name, often. People like to be acknowledged and studies show that addressing potential customers by name increases the likelihood of a sale by 36 percent. When you meet someone, say their name – “It’s a pleasure to meet you, Jim.” And repeat their name through the interview. It will help cement the relationship.
6. Be on time. Being late shows a lack of respect for others’ time. If you can, arrive 15 minutes early and use the time to collect your thoughts.
7. Focus on them. Even though it’s an interview, focusing too much on yourself will bore the other party. Prepare by making a list of questions about the other person and their company. You don’t have to go into great detail but show that you are interested in learning more about them.
8. Listen. We have talked about the need for good listening skills in the past. Exchange information, don’t dominate the conversation, and listen to the others closely. Also acknowledge what they are saying with phrases like, “that makes sense” or “interesting” or “can you elaborate on that” to show you are engaged.
9. Tain’t necessarily funny. Watch the use of humor. Avoid sarcasm or controversial jokes that could be misinterpreted, especially if you are meeting someone for the first time.
10. Bring your documents. Don’t assume they will have copies of your documents. Bringing your own paperwork shows you are prepared. And bring them in a portfolio or briefcase to show you are organized.
11. Do your homework. Learn all you can about the person whom you will be meeting. Check them out on LinkedIn, the corporate web site, and using other social networking tools so you can ask informed questions about them.
12. Be yourself. If you can, try to relax and be yourself – be authentic. To help you overcome nervousness, do something to relieve the stress. Exercise beforehand, listen to music, whatever helps you relax. Also give yourself a pep talk, list your best qualities, practice in the mirror, or call a friend to give you a boost. And during the meeting try to relax. You can never know what the other party is thinking so just be yourself.

Ask the Coach: What's in Your Career Toolbox?

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 Nicola James, Managing Partner of Thomas Brooke International.

This week, Nicola James hosted out Ask the Coach call. Much of the discussion revolved around developing all the career documents you can as part of your career toolbox.

As Nicola points out, resumes are a basic tool. They are not very exciting (in fact, they are often downright boring) but they are designed to deliver the facts quickly, succinctly, and thoroughly. And, of course, they are supposed to be sufficiently interesting to capture the reader’s attention. That’s a tall order, but one worth striving for.

Remember that when preparing your resume there is no time or room to address subtle nuances. You have to capture the reader’s attention in 15 seconds or less. The challenge is delivering the right information to capture their attention.

Of course, your resume can’t stand alone as the only tool in your career arsenal. Nicola strongly urges all executives, whether actively seeking a new job or passive candidates, to make sure their LinkedIn profiles are up to date and structured to capture attention. Many will look for your LinkedIn profile or search for you on Google before they engage with you. And a complete LinkedIn profile will increase your Google rankings. (If you are interested in learning more about how to optimize your LinkedIn profile, be sure to check out this month’s Experts Connection: “LinkedIn for Executives – Beyond the Basics.”)

Other tools you can include in your career toolbox to add that extra something – case studies, executive biographies, white papers, SlideShare presentations, and other marketing materials. Services like Box.net and SlideShare let you add more dimensions and depth to your online presence. They allow you to present additional content and materials that demonstrate your real value.

So think about ways to build your online persona. Don’t let your resume be your only means of introduction. Identify other online resources that can help you tell your story and point out your skills and your real value.