Archive for September, 2009

Archives for Research

Most of us want to fall truly, madly, deeply in love with our work. But the vast majority of us aren’t what HR experts call “engaged” by our jobs.

What can we do about that? First, we can realize that this is a universal problem. A recently released study of 88,612 workforce members in 18 countries by Towers Perrin finds that only 21 percent of employees are engaged in their current work. In fact, 38 percent of workers feel partly to fully disengaged.

Does this sound like the weather report for your cube? Patchy clouds of engagement, followed by chilly co-workers, and a chance of hot air from your boss.

The litmus test goes like this: If you care about the future of the company and are willing to make a discretionary effort, then it’s likely you are engaged. Translation: You’re willing to work 65 hours a week because you like your job and you like your company.

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Archives for Hot Skills

Clients who don’t know what they want can chew up countless hours of your time with exploratory emails, phone calls, meetings, and requests for more details if you let them. Ditto for blood-sucking zombies who milk you for free advice but have no intention of ever hiring you.

Here are some suggestions for “training” indecisive clients and weeding out the bloodsuckers:

Cap getting-to-know-me meetings. Bloodsuckers are fans of meetings with agendas like “let’s spend the next four hours talking about how you’d execute our project were we to actually offer it to you.” For this reason, I have a rule about complimentary getting-to-know-me meetings: One hour max is all you get – by bat phone, webcam, or in the flesh – and then I’m billing you for it. Likewise, I don’t dress, drive, and give up my morning for just anyone. Unless there’s big money, repeat business, or real PIE potential, I phone it in.

Use templates. Although I have a bio and work samples on my website, I still need to email interested clients my references, additional samples, and a more detailed bio or resume from time to time. The materials I send vary wildly, depending on whether I’m talking to an arts organization that wants me to teach, a potential copywriting client, or a news website that wants an article written. Rather than reinvent the wheel each time, I have a nice collection of templates I emply: ShamlessInstructorPromo.doc, Fortune500Bait.doc, and MediaWhore.doc.

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Archives for Branding You

When you go above and beyond the call of duty at work, you expect a reward for your efforts. But the payoff is often delayed – or worse – and it’s rarely what you were expecting.

What’s typically at stake for employees is a cash reward and heightened organizational stature – a big step toward a promotion. If the organization fails to come through even star employees head for the exits.

Unfortunately, HR experts say two pervasive problems undermine employee trust in rewards programs. First, there is often a lack of transparency into the rewards process and second, there is fuzziness about what it takes to qualify.

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Archives for Hot Skills

The art of everyday communications should be every executive’s number one priority. Every statement and every communication must contain the elements connected to company success, including its values, motivation, goals and objectives. However, successful communication is not just about idea, it’s also about how it is said.

These eight steps will help you turn communication into a hot skill, pivotal to advancing both your career and your company’s agenda:

The first step for leaders is to constantly keep internal and external communication lines open. Quick and responsive replies to all queries will ensure that everybody is on top of the game and keeping evolving situations transparent.

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Archives for Perfect Job

In his latest book Punching In Alex Frankel a journalist and “brand observer” recounts his recent experiences working entry-level jobs for some of America’s best-known employers: UPS, Starbucks, the Gap and Apple among others.

Unlike those of us who prefer to learn about companies by reading academic case studies or magazine articles, Frankel discovers firsthand how employees are indoctrinated into becoming brand evangelists. He gets his hands wet by whipping up Frappuccinos, delivering packages, folding merino sweaters and selling car rental insurance.

“Whenever I neared the UPS building in San Francisco I felt a strange pull inward, a longing for something I couldn’t articulate,” he writes. Frankel decides to experience “what it felt like to be part of an interconnected global workforce by becoming a piece of it.”

Does a hive-like mentality pervade American retail jobs? If so, many of the worker bees appear to be drones, but according to Frankel the chain stores look for certain types of employees. The Container Store, for instances prefers compulsive neat freaks.

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Archives for Recruiters

When we initiate contact with a recruiter – or they call us – we tend to think of them as our recruiter. That’s when the communication quandary begins.

Almost always, recruiters work for employers not job seekers. A typical misconception is that although many recruiters can and often do offer career advice, technically they’re working for the other side. You don’t want to convey to them a lack of confidence about your job quest because a) they’re not your confessor and b) they must have confidence in you to present you to an employer.

Of course, you want their advice, because without them you may not get through the front or side doors of your target employer or field. And they can provide you with valuable insights into a company’s culture and management. Not surprisingly, the number one question recruiters hear from job seekers is how often should I contact you?

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Archives for Branding You

We saw it this week: the economy hiccups, companies restructure and employees scatter in search of shelter and protection for the career they’ve fought so hard to build.

In times like these, many are faced with difficult decisions.  Should I stay with my company or seek another position in another company?  Should I go back to school to learn new skills and ride out the wave?  These are not easy questions to answer.  Mostly because they imply considerable additional effort to maintain the success already obtained or in hopes of obtaining some advantage in the future.  Rather than fall victim to change, success comes faster when you are braced for any organizational turbulence, whether it’s a simple restructuring, buyout, merger or foreclosure.

If you want to be successful in today’s dynamic corporate landscape, you’ll need a well-planned approach to navigating the streets of corporate change.  Your journey on the road to success begins with the three keys of the Blitz Approach; that is, managing perception, developing a real strategy and building a team.

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