Archive for November, 2009

Archives for Social Media

There are endless reasons to build a strong network of professional contacts. But perhaps none is more compelling in 2009 than the goal of establishing a career safety net.

In a recession jobs are last to get hit, yet are the slowest part of business spending to recover. This is the time to develop or revise an escape plan to insulate you from possible downturns or unforeseen changes at work.

“I don’t know if I would go so far as to call social networking a safety net,” says Kelly Krebs, Senior Account Executive at Horn Group, “but it can help if you if you are looking to move into a new career or if you are looking to expand your customer or partner base.”

Even though the economy is slumping that doesn’t mean you should stop expanding your web of contacts. While ultimately you will find & add contacts one at a time, the truth is you can better leverage your resources by joining social network-based communities.

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Archives for Mentors

Peter Drucker—“the father of modern management”—was perhaps the greatest management teacher of all time. Yet, few professionals know that Drucker’s teachings on self-management are equally profound.

In Living in More Than One World: How Peter Drucker’s Wisdom Can Inspire and Transform Your Life (Berrett-Koehler, 2009, $19.95), author and Drucker scholar Bruce Rosenstein presents Drucker’s prescription for designing a “total life”—a multifaceted life and career with diverse interests, relationships, and pursuits. Rosenstein reveals Drucker’s secrets to success—shared over years of personal interviews—and shows how to make your own life more satisfying, meaningful, and multidimensional.

Ten tips for getting started:

1.   Focus on achievement—not money

Drucker drew an important distinction between achievement and money. He suggested focusing on achievement and paying attention to how your successes, on and off the job, benefit both you and others. That doesn’t mean you can’t or won’t make money, Drucker explained, but that the pursuit of money ought to play a subordinate role.

2.   Make time for thinking

Thinking is hard work, and in our fast-paced society, said Drucker, it is sorely devalued. The point, he urged, is to break from the daily grind and think about where you are and where you’re going. You might not have the desire or means for Drucker’s suggested “week in the wilderness,” but surely you can carve out an hour now and then for self-reflection. Take a walk, practice yoga or meditation, or sit in nature. At work, even preparing for a performance review offers an opportunity to stop and reflect.

3.   Practice “systematic abandonment”

“People are effective because they say no…because they say this isn’t for me,” declared Drucker. Practice what he called “systematic abandonment”—stepping back, at regular intervals, to determine which of your present activities can be scaled back or eliminated. Only then can you make way for something more fruitful, such as teaching, learning, or volunteering.

4.   Learn the art of leisure

Drucker observed that “loafing” is easy, but “leisure” is difficult. As important as work is, avoid allowing it to be your only source of fulfillment. Find an outside interest or two, focusing on things that may bring you pleasure, satisfaction, and a heightened sense of self-worth.

5.   Develop a parallel career

In Drucker’s estimation, a parallel career can give you a window into other worlds and provide leadership opportunities that may not be available in your primary job. Even if your work is going perfectly, that won’t always be the case. So, start thinking now about a parallel career such as teaching, writing, or working in the nonprofit world. One day, it may even morph into your second or post-retirement career.

6.   Volunteer your time and talent

Drucker saw volunteerism as essential to the smooth functioning of society, as well as a satisfying way of ensuring that work doesn’t consume your life. Today, there are hundreds of volunteering opportunities to choose from. Drucker’s recommendation was simple: Find an organization and cause you believe in—and get to work!

7.   Become a mentor

Mentorship may be broader than just showing someone the ropes in a group or organization. It can include wide-ranging career and life advice, and as Drucker said, provide big benefits not only to the “mentee,” but also to the mentor. If you’ve been guided by mentors of your own, pay it forward by mentoring others. If not, look for opportunities to both mentor and be mentored.

8.   Start teaching

Another Drucker maxim: No one learns as much as the person who must teach his subject. Whether you become a volunteer, an adjunct professor, or a guest lecturer or presenter, you can find gratification in teaching others. Consider the kinds of opportunities that may be open to you at work, schools, churches, and professional associations. Also, if you know people who teach, ask for their advice and insights.

9.   Learn how to learn

For Drucker, learning was built into the fabric of his being. He also felt strongly that learning how to learn is key to self-development. Some people, he said, are readers, while others like to talk and listen, whether in casual conversation or more formal instruction. When it’s really crucial to learn something, think about how you learn best and seek out those types of opportunities.

10.   Be the CEO of your own life

Drucker saw self-management as an ongoing discipline, requiring self-knowledge, introspection, and personal responsibility. “In effect,” he said, “managing oneself demands that each knowledge worker think and behave like a chief executive officer.” Start now to think of yourself as the CEO of your own life and career, and take accountability for your decisions and actions. Know who you are, what is important to you, and how you will contribute at work and in the world.

Finally, take a deep breath and don’t expect everything to happen at once. Start where you are and move towards your total life one step at a time.

Bruce Rosenstein is a veteran journalist and librarian and a leading expert on the life and work of management icon Peter Drucker. He’s the author of Living in More Than One World: How Peter Drucker’s Wisdom Can Inspire and Transform Your Life (Berrett-Koehler, 2009).

Archives for Hot Skills

In a useful BusinessWeek report called Managing the Global Workforce we learned that winning the war for talent is a challenge that few corporations are well-equipped to handle.

I wouldn’t call this news, but it’s certainly a macro-trend: as corporations morph from multinationals into transnationals that establish talent centers around the globe, talent management becomes a more strategic skill set for aspiring executives. Some b-schools are starting to teach these skills, but mostly it’s on-the-job training.

The key takeaway for job seekers is that you want to work for a company that doesn’t try to replicate its culture around the globe but instead embraces diversity as strength and not a weakness.

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Archives for Career Advice

Until recently, Jonathan Bernstein, a baby boomer and small-business owner in the Los Angeles area, had plans to “semi-retire.” On turning 60 in 2011, Bernstein had hoped to cut his workload in half, and he and his wife were contemplating purchasing a home in a state with a lower cost of living than California. But those plans have been scuttled now that the couple has seen values dwindle on both their home and Bernstein’s self-employed pension plan. Bernstein says his pension plan has dropped about 25 to 30 percent.

“In pretty much all ways, we’re belt-tightening just in case things get worse and also to eliminate the credit debt we’ve carried,” Bernstein says. “Despite all that, we’re very optimistic about a turnaround, perhaps still in time for us to pursue our previous plans – but we’re not counting on it.”

Ellen Naylor, 52, says she and her husband, 54, are also being squeezed by the recession. “Like many our portfolio took a beating this year since we did not see this coming,” she says. “We are pretty angry in a way since we have always been fiscally conservative and feel like we’re paying for others’ indulgences, not the least of which is the financial industry which lent people money who had no business ever assuming a mortgage.”

Naylor, who is based in Colorado, says they’re “belt-tightening like crazy” to cope, and that she and her husband are continuing to work, doing what they love – he is an artist, and she is writing a book on cooperative intelligence. “I have noticed that many who retire lose their minds and their spirit, so passionate working could well be a solution, and on lower speed as we get older,” she says.

Bernstein, Naylor and their spouses aren’t the only ones altering their retirement plans – but sources offer differing opinions as to why boomers and older Americans are doing so. Some say it’s due to the dismal economy, but others chalk it up to an innate drive to keep working, one that existed before the recession. (Baby boomers include approximately 78 million individuals born between 1946 and 1964.)

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Archives for Perfect Job

In a weak economy the tendency is for workers to hold onto their jobs a bit longer than they would otherwise prefer. Is it possible that in a downturn the best thing to do is counterintuitive – quitting corporate America to freelance, start a business or return to college? Better now than never – even if you don’t succeed.

In her book, Escape from Corporate America, Pamela Skillings, a career coach and blogger, says that moving back and forth between solo ventures or startups and corporate jobs is “really the only way to develop, learn and grow.”

Why not take a break from corporate life? Skillings reasons: “So what if you fail? Or what if you discover that solopreneurship isn’t your calling after all?  Sure, it would suck. But you can probably always get a job similar to the one you’re thinking about quitting.”

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Archives for Career Advice

I fled the cube 15 years ago to work as a freelance writer, and I’m happy to report that I’ve yet to be evicted from my home or wind up on food stamps. As a result, I’m constantly asked to share my top tips for would-be and newbie freelancers. Here are a few of my tried and trues:

Turn down some of the gigs. Don’t automatically accept every project you’re offered. Instead, choose a handful of topics and industries to specialize in. Building a niche or three makes you far more marketable. Besides, some jobs are so downright miserable that you’d be better off eating Ramen for a few days than tying up your schedule with them.

Hit up your ex-boss for work. There’s no better freelance lead than someone who already knows and loves you. (For the sake of argument, I’m assuming you left your day job on good terms.) Managers live to hire freelancers who are already familiar with their SOPs and corporate culture. And we freelancers love knowing in advance who we’re really getting into bed with. Read More